Premise
It’s the fiftieth anniversary of the Super Sentai series and they’re going to celebrate the only way they know how – by blowing up even more stuff than usual.
Zigg’s verdict: We Are Number One
Fifty years is a hell of a long time for anything to exist, let alone something as fleeting and ephemeral as a children’s television show, so it’s genuinely worthy of celebration that Super Sentai has made it, more or less unscathed, from 1975 all the way to the present day. In recent years Toei has tended to focus its anniversary celebrations more on the ‘5’ anniversaries than the round numbers, as evidenced by Gokaiger (35th anniversary) and Zenkaiger (45th anniversary), but they’ve decided to go all out for the big five-oh this time.
This opening episode certainly does a good job of attempting to convey a scale and weightiness beyond your average Sentai opener. It’s been a while since we’ve had a show where the robot was the main McGuffin, and the appropriately solemn narration/voicework by Yuki Kaji has pleasing overtones of classic 70’s super robot shows, what with the focus on the mech as a legendary figure guiding the hero to self-actualization. It’s a real treat to see a ton of the old robots together on screen too, the kind of fun, fanservicey gesture which whets your appetite for more to come.
Visually, the opener is anchored by the spectacular mech fight that acts as its centrepiece, with a magnificent array of suits and practical effects front-and-centre, particularly the repeated use of real pyrotechnics. It’s a guarantee that it won’t look this good every week of course, but as a statement of intent it’s hard to ignore. I like a lot of the less obvious aesthetics too, like the bell-themed mooks and Fire Candle and Bouquet’s outrageous costumes. The wacky cheerleading squad and associated visual insanity might be a little much however.
In terms of narrative, it’s hard to read too much from the stock openeing episode tropes, but I don’t immediately hate our hero Hoeru, generally a good sign when it comes to ‘too cool for school’ red rangers. By far the most intriguing twist wrinkle is the presence of Tsutsumi Natsume, who played Boon Red in the just concluded Bakuage Sentai Boonboomger, as a completely different character who transforms into a completely different red ranger. It’s a pretty odd move honestly, but as I’ve said before anything which adds unexpected intrigue to the generally formulaic early period of a Sentai show is to be cautiously commended, so I’m interested to see where they take the idea.
Overall, this was one of the stronger debut episodes I’ve seen for a Sentai series and I’m excited for what lies ahead for the show. As I said, 50 years of airing is a huge achievement and I’d very much like Gozyuger to be a show worthy of the celebration. Fingers crossed.
Iro’s verdict: Sentai Fight, All Set! Ready, Go!
Anniversary series always feel like a toss-up, and Sentai is a particularly fraught subject. Gozyuger is celebrating a whopping 50 years and 50 sentai, enough that they wouldn’t even be able to cover one team per episode! The solution to this seems to be a battle royale of sorts where various teams are fighting to see who gets to become Number One. As my verdict references, the focus on (so far) one-on-one fights complete with spectral wrestling rings and fighting game trappings brings Mobile Fighter G Gundam to mind; we even get a not-quite Shining Finger. It’s a good-enough premise with some potential for fun, Gozyuger’s premiere pulls it off with plenty of verve and pyrotechnics. There’s no way we’ll keep up this level of prop tomfoolery going forth but I’m feeling optimistic.
