Ryusoulger Special: Memory of Soulmates discussion thread

[takenoko]

Wiki

I'm not totally sure why this exists. It's not long enough to be a movie or a proper epilogue or sendoff for the Ryusoulgers. But I can't complain about the pacing, kind of wish some episodes were just 14 minutes long to be honest

More Nada for you Nadaheads out there. I guess if someone was like "We need to see the story that leads to them playing ping pong" then here is this special (very carefully worded to not say movie)

About the only major positive in this special is that we get more Miyahara Kanon from Amazons. Give her all the toku roles, she's badass. And while Ryusoulger wasn't my favorite series, it is cool to see these actors and these characters again

Edit: They got Sakamoto to direct this? Is it 13 minutes long because he did it on his lunch break between doing better movies? I don't even recognize the writer for this special. Considering it takes place between actual episodes of Ryusoulger, it feels like a pretty easy gig where there's barely a story?

[midorininger]

Melto thinking up were Nada/RyusoulViolet would stand during the role call formation was a nice touch. we never really see sentai practicing that. even when they are all randomly gathered they just go right into place. poses and all.
man i would have loved to have seen that role call.... im a sucker for a long role call, oof! if Dekaranger ranger had marigold along with the team ... and dekabright ... yes ... (i didnt forget kyuranger!)
so wait ... are you telling me Nada was defeated because the armor was powerless and that how we got Ryusoul max?
and are we also to believe, if that Gaisoul is powered by hatred, then that means the OG Gaisorg they fought in the movie, in which we learned the Gaisorg Armor was the prototype for the ryusoulger suits, the head of the tribe must have absorbed a lot of hatred? oh wait they were at war ... so i guess ...
but what about the RyusoulBrown armor? and why is brown the new fav repaint (KR Saber's excaliber into brown for KR Solomon)

[takenoko]

Wasn't it something like the prototype was flawed or over time it became powered by hatred? I honestly don't remember the details. Don't the Ryusoulger ancestors appear in their original movie? I think there's some mention of Gaisorg in that

[ViRGE]

This is one of those movies that would probably be easier to enjoy if I didn't know so much about the production side of things. Mostly because I'm sitting here and wondering how we got a half-sized Ryusoulger episode a year after the series finished airing.

The special itself is fine. In fact it's probably one of the better Ryusoulger productions. There's not much substance here (especially given the runtime), but it gets a lot of characterization into such a short period of time.

Which in a roundabout way also serves to highlight Ryusoulger's shortfalls. The Gaisorg arc had an incredible amount of potential - both on its own and to pull up what had been up to that point a mediocre series - but the writers never could hit the necessary high notes. In large part, I feel, due to the fact that Nada was forced on the viewers pretty hard. It's character-driven scenes like this that were lacking; if this had been a proper episode of the show, then I think it would have gone a long way towards improving the Gaisorg arc. Instead we get something released after the fact; it's too late to redeem the arc, but I appreciate the effort and that someone at Toei was cognizant of where the production crew initially screwed up. If nothing else, for someone who is watching this series after the fact, they will get the advantage of seeing this episode at its chronological place within the Gaisorg arc.

As for the production side of matters, I have so many questions. Like Takenoko pointed out, why does this even exist? I mean it's nice to have, but it comes so very late after the series itself. And how did they get all the main characters back? I can only assume that the cast contracted for a Returns movie, which in turn was impacted by COVID? In which case, this would seem to be a situation where either Toei was contractually obligated to make a movie, or they were making lemonade out of lemons, since they had these actors under contract. That would also explain why it looks like this was filmed in the fall of 2020; which puts it well after the series ended (but before the VS was filmed) as an optional work.

None of this quite explains the runtime though, which isn't much longer than a Wakusaver episode. It obviously was done on the cheap (all outdoors with no sets, and only the briefest transformed fight). I guess Toei wanted something to help pad out the winter triple-feature?

In any case, so long to the Ryusoulgers. My only regret at this point is that this means we won't get to see any more Bamba! (On the plus side, it also means no more Canolo!)

Edit: They got Sakamoto to direct this? Is it 13 minutes long because he did it on his lunch break between doing better movies? I don't even recognize the writer for this special. Considering it takes place between actual episodes of Ryusoulger, it feels like a pretty easy gig where there's barely a story?

I didn't even think to check the director. But if you're going to do a special where the fighting is almost entirely using the actors, then it makes sense that they'd call Sakamoto in; this is pretty much his specialty. This would also explain why the MOTW/guest actress was a kicker: Sakamoto loves his legs...

Overall I don't know if this would have been an easy project. It seemed to have the actors in front of the camera about as much as a whole Ryusoulger episode. There would have been less travel/prep involved, but those untransformed fight scenes do take longer to train for and film. Any real savings would have been on not requiring a second unit to film the regular fight scenes, and perhaps making things a bit easier on the writers.

[DaVinci030]

I don't even recognize the writer for this special. Considering it takes place between actual episodes of Ryusoulger, it feels like a pretty easy gig where there's barely a story?

I recognized that guy through JP reading. He's the main producer of Ryusoulger and one of the PGSM producers.

[msf232]

So Koichi Sakamoto directed this...
Was there anything specially Sakamoto-esque in this special?

[ViRGE]

So Koichi Sakamoto directed this...
Was there anything specially Sakamoto-esque in this special?

Lots of untransformed fighting. And lots of leg.

[Monkeyjb1988]

Wiki

I'm not totally sure why this exists. It's not long enough to be a movie or a proper epilogue or sendoff for the Ryusoulgers. But I can't complain about the pacing, kind of wish some episodes were just 14 minutes long to be honest

More Nada for you Nadaheads out there. I guess if someone was like "We need to see the story that leads to them playing ping pong" then here is this special (very carefully worded to not say movie)

About the only major positive in this special is that we get more Miyahara Kanon from Amazons. Give her all the toku roles, she's badass. And while Ryusoulger wasn't my favorite series, it is cool to see these actors and these characters again

Edit: They got Sakamoto to direct this? Is it 13 minutes long because he did it on his lunch break between doing better movies? I don't even recognize the writer for this special. Considering it takes place between actual episodes of Ryusoulger, it feels like a pretty easy gig where there's barely a story?

Agree with all. Easily the worse of the three and nothing special. The fact only one of them transformed is just the final kick in the butt. Definitely only made to pad out the triple-bill showing.

I'll give it points for Asuna's long hair as I read the actress got a haircut. After seeing the Kyoryuger and Gaim interquels, this special gets credit for that.

Which in a roundabout way also serves to highlight Ryusoulger's shortfalls. The Gaisorg arc had an incredible amount of potential - both on its own and to pull up what had been up to that point a mediocre series - but the writers never could hit the necessary high notes. In large part, I feel, due to the fact that Nada was forced on the viewers pretty hard. It's character-driven scenes like this that were lacking; if this had been a proper episode of the show, then I think it would have gone a long way towards improving the Gaisorg arc. Instead we get something released after the fact; it's too late to redeem the arc, but I appreciate the effort and that someone at Toei was cognizant of where the production crew initially screwed up. If nothing else, for someone who is watching this series after the fact, they will get the advantage of seeing this episode at its chronological place within the Gaisorg arc.

As for the production side of matters, I have so many questions. Like Takenoko pointed out, why does this even exist? I mean it's nice to have, but it comes so very late after the series itself. And how did they get all the main characters back? I can only assume that the cast contracted for a Returns movie, which in turn was impacted by COVID? In which case, this would seem to be a situation where either Toei was contractually obligated to make a movie, or they were making lemonade out of lemons, since they had these actors under contract. That would also explain why it looks like this was filmed in the fall of 2020; which puts it well after the series ended (but before the VS was filmed) as an optional work.

I'm glad I'm not alone about Gaisorg. Yeah, HUGE wasted opprtunity with him (Void Knight is one thing the Power Rangers can say they improved on from Sentai.

I think you're right about it being a COVID affected Returns film. That or they thought just a Kiramager + Zenkaiger double-feature wasn't enough and it was just easy to get the Ryusoulgers back so close to the team-up. Who knows?

One major question: the dedication to Mana Kinjo was nice and probably the best part of the film. However, WHY WAS IT IN ENGLISH?!?! I know Japan tries to teach English as a 2nd language but WHY make the dedication to a actress English when the audience is full of Japanese kids and adults watching a Japanese film? I just don't get it (and I doubt they were throwing American fans a bone considering the current state of TV-Nihon).

[takenoko]

I think Japanese people learn enough English in school to be able to read that. They might not feel comfortable having a conversation in English if you run into them in Tokyo or something, but they know the basics. English is nearly the universal language anyway

[Lunagel]

I think it might actually be an out for the parents. If it's in Japanese, most kids elementary school age will be able to read and understand, but in English, hardly any. This way Toei can still give tribute, but you don't get kids crying "UI DIED?!"

[Monkeyjb1988]

Oh. It still stinks they couldn't do it in Japanese but both those ideas make sense, especially little kids crying (although I don't know how many ready the credits; I know I did but I admit I'm weird). Thank you takenoko and Lunagel.