DonBrothers 03 discussion thread

[HowlingSnail]

CGI even didn't bother me as much this time, probably because blue appeared took a portion of screentime for himself.
But still. Can someone explain why do they look like budget-tier PSX era cutscene graphics during the time when one-person indie teams can produce entire games that look way, WAY better than this??

budget and time constraints. Games have a longer development time, these episodes they're getting mayyyybe a week to work on each one, it's not a fair comparison.

I'd argue they should have known all of that and realised they can't possibly pull it off properly. They've been doing these shows a long time, they know their own production schedules.

[Lunagel]

I'm not saying it wasn't a bad idea. It was an incredibly bad idea, especially after they clearly knew they couldn't pull it off realistically with the two robo brothers in Zenkai. And the CGI is atrocious, horrifically plasticine and with clipping errors and weight problems.

I'm just saying you can't compare apples and oranges here. Games have an entirely different development schedule/budget. Adult-marketed TV a la Marvel and Disney has 6 and 7 figure budgets per episode. Scale down your expectations to a weekly kid-marketed show on broadcast TV with a modest budget.

It was very stupid idea though.

[HowlingSnail]

I'd honestly like to see what they'd look like if these shows had Marvel budgets. Kiji Brother is probably just an inherently stupid design, but Inu Brother could actually look really good if given the time and money required.

[Mikadius]

Scale down your expectations to a weekly kid-marketed show on broadcast TV with a modest budget.

No I totally get what you're saying, but that's the issue.
I'm not expecting marvel-scale CGI here. I'm just baffled by how this here CGI looks that much out-of-place in the current year. I've seen what 3d-artists put on pixiv and deviantart. I've seen one-person devs produce a decently detailed human character model in roughly two months' time, while also working on coding the game and whatnot. Not a lot, yeah, but that's just one person with (most likely) a side project to their other job. I would say the lowest possible bar for 3d graphics is dictated by software and hardware alone and this year's show still managed to scored below that. Because it looks great for 1990s, it looks okay for 2000s, but it does not look like it belongs in 2021/2022.
What I don't get is how a company with any non-zero amount of resources can do worse than a random 3d artist with a cup-o-noodles paid for by their patreon.

Toei had to either limit themselves to tech from something like 15 years ago or have some other reason for making those as they are, and I'm really wondering how and why did they do that.

[Mikadius]

BTW, giant robo cgi can be hit or miss for some, but models for it seem to be way above cgi-gers

Spoiler

[Ashki]

I'm beginning to think the issue with the CGI brothers is the same as one we've had before. Look at how much CGI is needed for Don's entrances, finishers, and mech battles. They obviously put all their money into those facets of the show, then realised they still had to do the two CGI brothers.
It honestly feels like Gokaiger all over again, where they blew the entire effects budget on the first two episodes and we had a visible quality drop after that. If this is the case with DonBrothers (and I strongly suspect it is), Don rolliong in on the motorcycle even when he doesn't have his entourage will be almost mandatory to make up for blowing the budget on those models.

They could have fixed the two brothers pretty easily if they'd taken a moment to think about it. Pink is basically walking on silts, and Black could've been played by a dwarf - especially with Disney not wanting to employ people with dwarfism anymore. Plenty of actors out there who could fit into a suit and even do their own stunts that are unemployed. Both brothers would've been fixed with no need for a CGI budget unless they wanted to tweak something. Besides, when we see Pink in the thick of it, he's always in an Avatar Change, so a stuntman on stilts for the initial appearances would be safe enough.

But all that said, they wanted to go CG, and I can gaurantee the figure sales will suffer for that mistake. Maybe they'll fix it later on for a movie or something. Hell, they HAVE to fix it for the stage shows.


Outside of the CGI (which I'm barely noticing because of all the fun), I really do love this series so far. My prediction kind of came true on the kneeling thing, too. In two episodes, she did the slide three times. The fourth time, she simply knelt and got punted anyway. It's a perfect counter for the Zenkaiger "Oh look, a gun" gag. The narration continues to be top-notch, and we're being led on carrots for so many things at once. Those little scenes seem pointless, but they get us curious anyway, and Inoue is very good at dropping morsels that only pay off much, much later in ways you didn't expect. We know hrte villains are trying to "cleanse" the world, but not where these evil spirits are coming from that are possesing the humans. Are they like yummies or closer to Imagin? Or are the monsters part of a much larger plot that only the villains know and this will become something more like a Lupin/Pat type conflict and we'll find out that a "freed" human can become repossessed if not destroyed (ironically making the bad guys the Pat team).


All I know is that this show is already Inoue at his best - Every episode follows one huge arc, yet feels fresh and new while hinting at a much darker plot with a truly deep mystery brewing that seems to surround a god and is chock full of Unknowns.

[Mikadius]

Still not sure why did the Don have to kick Onisister away like that. I know it's a running gag that she is being mistreated when kneeling but, like, why did he chose to do that..? Kinda rude

[Ashki]

Still not sure why did the Don have to kick Onisister away like that. I know it's a running gag that she is being mistreated when kneeling but, like, why did he chose to do that..? Kinda rude

Don likes to play rough when he's excited. He didn't kick her with the intention of being cruel, just like he wasn't actually trying to harm the other members afterwards. Think of it like a cat who's inviting you to rub their belly. They're quite calm and even purring, then suddenly the bunny kicks start and they try to play-fight with your arm, even though you might not feel like it's play if the claws slip out.

[Thenosa Yechette]

As for Tarou, is it my imagination, or does he have a radically different personality when he's transformed?

It's not just you, I think the same thing. And his 2 vastly different personalities are what makes him interesting to me.

Finally, I have to say that the music crew has developed an interesting leitmotif for the bad guys (does their group have a name, BTW?). It's use has been anything but subtle, but it's also kind of catchy. Even more interesting, it would seem there's a version of it for each of the commanders. Blue gets the motif in strings, Brown gets the motif in horns, and White gets the motif in harpsichord. It's a nice way to mix things up so that they all share a leitmotif while still getting a unique variation.

The group of the villain generals is called 『脳人』- Nōto. And yes, I agree that the music this season is very good.... The BGM has been enjoyable so far.

I had to stop and check who the director was for this episode. Given the leg focus, I was genuinely surprised to see it wasn't Sakamoto.

The amount of skin(not just legs) Sononi shows in her human form seems to be one of her prominent feature- which is clearly entertaining the male audience. So I think it's safe to expect they'll show more close-up shots on her like this one in the future....

The more important question is why these monsters are so explicitly linked to Sentai team? This week's MOTW not only dropped the Lupin gear, but you very clearly see the Lupin symbol when the human transforms into the monster to begin with.

This is probably because as someone else already pointed out, Donbrothers took some things from Zi-O. The MOTW pattern seems to resemble the "Another Rider" concept, and the villains are obviously very similar to the Timejackers from Zi-O....

[vasyear]

This is the first Sentai series I've gotten into so quickly, Shinkenger was the first I loved, Magiranger is very close to my heart but i've always had to wait till the series gets going before I start to enjoy it, I find it running at a good and measured pace and I love how its taken its time to set up its characters but I did think it odd how it started out appearing as it was going to be the blue ranger's intro episode then did a 180

[takenoko]

I give Inoue a lot of shit for his proclivities, but he is a good and experienced writer when he wants to be. We've all seen in recent years how Sentai feels when the writing behind it isn't so good. It makes a big difference in the experience

Kobayashi Yasuko will always be queen of toku writers though

[takenoko]

Looks like I forgot to do poll results for this series so far:

Don 01: 4.2 / 5 stars (15 votes)
Don 02: 4.38 / 5 stars (16 votes)
Don 03: 4.36 / 5 stars (14 votes)

[KRMonkey]

I suspect that the low-res CGI models result from a combination of budget considerations and stylistic choice. Like, even well-done-for-Super-Hero-Time CGI effects are rarely realistic, so maybe they're leaning into the unreality of the Avataro World.

I have to say that this show has reignited my interest in Sentai, which just about disappeared after Kiramager and Zenkaiger. DonBrothers is a little incoherent so far, but it sure isn't boring or predictable, and I love that there's a thread of darkness (it's been a while since bystanders have gotten killed in Sentai, hasn't it?) to balance all the silliness.

It'd be nice if our heroes could eventually start acting like human beings, but the show is entertaining enough so far that I'll take what I can get.

[fartboy]

Lotta cusswords this week. LOL

Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't he specifically say "imaginary sake" and not just the generic "imaginary drink"?

I forgot to mention I'm talking about the "anon" sub.

[Lunagel]

Lotta cusswords this week. LOL

Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't he specifically say "imaginary sake" and not just the generic "imaginary drink"?

I forgot to mention I'm talking about the "anon" sub.

I already answered you
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