Poll: What's your opinion of Ryusoulger?

Another dinosaur Sentai???
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Ratings

Poll ended at Sun Jun 07, 2020 8:08 pm

☆☆☆☆☆ What a valiant knight!
3
8%
☆☆☆☆ Second to red
6
17%
☆☆☆ Background regular
9
25%
☆☆ Second worst dinosaur
10
28%
☆ This is really not my knight
8
22%
 
Total votes: 36
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Re: Poll: What's your opinion of Ryusoulger?

Post by Catastrophe »

I don't see it getting any better.
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Re: Poll: What's your opinion of Ryusoulger?

Post by Blackcondorguy »

VIRGe and Take's discussion about Ryusoulger being a character driven or plot driven show makes me wonder...Is it bad because it's supposed to be a character driven show with poorly written characters or because it's supposed to be a plot driven show with an inconsistent plot?

Come to think of it, if anything, it's a "power-up driven" show, since the power-ups are the only thing that keeps the show moving. Power-ups are more of a plot device, so "plot driven" I guess? Well, that would be the problem then, because the plot in itself is pretty thin, so everything that happens seem unrelated to an overall greater chain of events. Even when they were settling the whole Gaisorg story, which good or bad was the only consistent plot so far, it ended up being another power-up...and a shitty one too, since it was nullified one or two eps later!

I also agree that the bad guys are another reason for the show being bad. They never feel like an organized, coherent threat. They're just a bunch of random bosses making random monsters out of random people. And Kreon.

Actually, I do think the action is pretty good. And it made me realize that : cool costumes, paper-thin characters, unbalanced focus on Red, inconsistent plots and great action -> it's an 80s sentai! The problem is that the genre evolved since the 80s, and it feels like the main writer has no idea what makes a sentai series good nowadays.
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Re: Poll: What's your opinion of Ryusoulger?

Post by takenoko »

That's a pretty good analysis, I feel like I don't have much to say.

It does remind me of this cool triangle for worldbuilding that I saw the other day. Sorry I don't know the original creator:

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Found it on this twitter https://twitter.com/EichenserELA?lang=hu

The characters in Ryusoulger are good (imo). The world feels made up on the spot and mostly poorly thought out. And the plot feels nonexistent. So all we really have is one point on the triangle, and that's why the Ryusoulgers don't change very much, even as the series enters the endgame.
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Re: Poll: What's your opinion of Ryusoulger?

Post by VerusMaya II »

I feel oddly betrayed by Ryusoulger. I marathoned up through episode 34 or so, and until that very point, the characters were receiving more or less equal screen time and development, we were getting the occasional cool backstory of the Ryusoul tribe, and the plot was moving along consistently (if not pointing towards a particularly exciting story).

And then, the moment Nada died and Pricious was introduced...... it became a standard sentai show. The focus swapped to Red (and sometimes Gold), the episodes became throwaways and fillers, and the medicore plot ground to a halt (with the exception of the Ryusoul Calibur debut where we got our ominous "the worse is yet to come!").

What happened? The writer didn't change. There was no executive meddling or staff reshuffling that I'm aware of.

It's a real shame, because I do like the framework of these characters. The actors are doing their best at selling them - Asuna is the absolute cutest, and I love Bamba's tsundere-ness. They're just stuck in this mire of mediocrity and aimless fillers!
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Re: Poll: What's your opinion of Ryusoulger?

Post by Blackcondorguy »

It does remind me of this cool triangle for worldbuilding that I saw the other day. Sorry I don't know the original creator
That triangle really sums it all. Maybe you should translate it and send it to Ryusoulger's writing staff!

Was the show really less centered around Red before episode 34? My mind says it was already, but it would be interesting to check (but no way am I watching it again!)

I agree the characters are not all bad, but they are so underused that it feels like they're just templates of good characters. And the ones that aren't underused are pretty bland...even the masters, who could have been great characters AND plot devices are almost non-existent. Are the guest actors so busy that they're only available for 3 episodes ?

It reminds me of Jûohger, where Murakami Kohei's sparse presence ruined what could have been a far better plot. Also, both series started out with more potential than what they turned out to be. I'd just give Jûohger an extra point for not being a rehash of a previous series. Also, though it was fairly red centric, Yamato was not as annoying as Koh.
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Re: Poll: What's your opinion of Ryusoulger?

Post by takenoko »

I mean it is and it isn't too focused on Koh. Koh is the one who does the mecha stuff, so in function, he tends to be one of the guys left standing when the team is taken out.

One thing that Ryusoulger does that isn't so annoying is that usually the team has an okayish distribution of stuff. Like there won't be Asuna or Towa focus episodes, but instead they might get one or two interestingish things to do in an episode. But that leads to things like Melto figuring out how to beat the monster, then handing off the attention to Koh to kill the monster.

I don't know if this is just how things were in older sentai or maybe it's always been this way and I was less bothered by it, but it certainly bugs the crap out of me now!
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Re: Poll: What's your opinion of Ryusoulger?

Post by Catastrophe »

The focus on Koh doesn't work for me because he doesn't come across as being either charismatic enough to be the leader or powerful enough to warrant it.
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Re: Poll: What's your opinion of Ryusoulger?

Post by Blackcondorguy »

Actually, I think what is so annoying about Koh is that he's not really defined as a character. According to the needs of the episode, he'll be smart or dumb or naive or fearless or whatever...remember the one episode when they said he had anger issues that were never mentioned before or after? There's absolutely nothing to hold on to except that he's the hero and he mostly saves the day.

And that's close to what Red characters were in the 80s : one episode Red would be suspicious of a character everybody else trusted and the character in question would be revealed to be a spy, the next he would trust a monster against everyone's advice and the monster would turn out to be a good guy...nothing coherent except that Red is always right and always does the right thing.

To pull it off, as Catastrophe said, you have to have a very charismatic character. That's what worked in Kyoryuger, which had a flawless Red who got heavy focus, but also managed to give enough spotlight to the other characters as well. I don't think it was one of the best sentai so far (even Dinosaurwise, I think Abaranger was better) but it was well handled and well-written.
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Re: Poll: What's your opinion of Ryusoulger?

Post by Lunagel »

You also need a certain type of actor to pull off the role. Koh's actor isn't bad, but he just can't pull off the part well enough. I think the best Reds that have been hyper focused on were probably Kyouryuu Red and LupinRed, maybe Toq Ichigou.
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Re: Poll: What's your opinion of Ryusoulger?

Post by takenoko »

Yeah Blackcondorguy basically nails it again on Koh. He has no personality because it has to fill whatever random plot need is needed for the episode.
Blackcondorguy wrote: Tue Jan 21, 2020 12:39 am remember the one episode when they said he had anger issues that were never mentioned before or after? There's absolutely nothing to hold on to except that he's the hero and he mostly saves the day.
Yeah, they do it a couple times, but do like literally no setup or character portrayal of it to make it a thing. It's literally tell not show.
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Re: Poll: What's your opinion of Ryusoulger?

Post by Catastrophe »

Excellent points by all three. Completely sums up everything I'm thinking.

In a way, the other 5 Ryusoulgers have more consistent characterisation, but part of that is mostly the fact they get little spotlight in comparison.
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Re: Poll: What's your opinion of Ryusoulger?

Post by takenoko »

It's the day before the last episode, average rating of 2.27 from 15 members. Will that change post series?
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Re: Poll: What's your opinion of Ryusoulger?

Post by ViRGE »

takenoko wrote: Sat Feb 29, 2020 5:22 pm It's the day before the last episode, average rating of 2.27 from 15 members. Will that change post series?
Depends. Are we going to do a new post-series poll? Or see how many people show up here to (potentially) change their vote?
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Re: Poll: What's your opinion of Ryusoulger?

Post by takenoko »

people can always change their vote. no new poll is needed
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Re: Poll: What's your opinion of Ryusoulger?

Post by decade368990 »

This is my first time giving a poll for a Sentai series. I give a 2 because the overall is pretty much things we've seen before. I supported the series in the first few episodes earlier because of Osaki Ichika is cute.

The story is no where interesting. The writers had no idea how to write something creative in the mid episodes. Then, the main writer returned to write Eps 31-32 for the power-up plot and the series continued with downhill ideas except Pricious kicking Max Ryusoul Red's ass. The handling of the cameos in the Final Act was awful. Couldn't Masters Red, Blue, and Pink at least make an appearance in the flashbacks? The whole thing is essentially using the same formula as Fourze and Wizard; where the writers recycle elements from predecessors to compensate boring pace.

I gave my earlier goodbye to this series last week. No regrets.
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