Avataro Sentai Donbrothers (2022)

Pure Chaos Personified as A Sentai Shows

This might not be the best sentai shows, but it sure is one of the most unforgettable sentai shows that I ever watch (and I watch all from Jetman until this one). Now hear me out, or technically read me out.

Main storyline for a sentai show usually has the same premise everytime, there is big bad villain that wants to destroy/conquer the whole world and in their way stands a group of people who usually armed with the right power just to oppose them. Big bad sends minions each week for a year and then it ends with the sentai team fighting the final boss.

BUT THAT IS NOT HOW THIS ONE GOES

From the start, Yellow is struck with unluckiness and somehow roped into the team. It is only until this point that it follows the normal sentai trope. What follows afterward are sentai teams that band together only when fighting the monster, teams that never really know each other until a few episodes in and only fully know each other on the last 10 episodes, many personal arc for each of the member, monster that were not part of any faction, and enemy general that all has personalities. Hereon it just pure chaos. You can never know what will happen next, why it happen, and how the heck can that happen. I can't even imagine how the final episode will be about and how this will end. Each member has their own story and motivations to keep being Donbrothers beside fighting to keep people safe. Not to mention their personalities also differ from each other yet they can still work as a cohesive team

Overall, watching Donbrothers felt more like watching a drama series with tokusatsu and fantasy elements since it is more heavily focused on the characters and story arc rather than exploring on the lore about the villains faction. By the end of the final episode, you can see the result of each character journey. How they finally kind of find what that they wants at the start of the series. The sad part is that it did not really delve on the villain faction as I stated before. There are no final showdown with the big boss and no explanation what happens with the villain faction after it.

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Mild spoilers ahead:

Everything the show did well:
-Extremely likeable characters from the most part, one of the most unique teams in the franchise.
-Every member in the team has a really distinct personality that makes them really stand out. And that includes the main Nouto trio.
-Consistently really funny.
-Not a single boring episode, every episode manages to have something interesting and be pretty funny.
-The dynamic between the team and their rival sentai Nouto is done really well.
-Momoi and Jiro's fighting style is consistently really well done.
-Most of the characters/monsters of the week are really memorable.
-Most of the show's emotional moments are really well executed.
-Great soundtrack.
-The show has ton of style, it visually stands out from any Sentai.
-Most of the mecha fights are really great, the change in background makes it so that the show can do really cool stuff aestheticly.
-Great finale for the most part.
-Despite being kinda messy, they show has pretty great and interesting world-building.
-Having a a mix between a J-Drama and absurdist comedy approach to the main characters makes the cast stand out.
-Better acting than your usual Sentai.
-First arc feels really unique due having the yellow ranger Haruka be the protagonist.

Everything the show did bad:
-Most of the fights don't look that great. During the first arc only Momoi knows how to fight which affects the choreography of early episodes. The pink ranger Kijino and the black ranger Tsubasa just pretty much never look great on screen or when they fight. They manage to make some pretty fun scenes with this but for the most part they barely actually fight on the show and when they do it doesn't look good. Some fights in the show go by very fast.
-Dispite having quite a few serious moments and the premise being 'kinda' dark, the show just doesn't take itself seriously at all and some of the answers to this show's biggest mysteries can be extremely goofy. Personally I didn't mind this due to how entertaining the show was but I understand why it would be a complaint.
-Murasame could be just reduced to a non-sentient weapon and have his character arc removed from the show and it would barely affect the show, he's easily this show's most wasted character and you can tell the writer didn't particularly care for him.
-The show not having a proper main antagonist makes the finale slightly less endearing.
-The show's main mentor is named exactly the same as Zenkaiger's protagonist, is played by the same actor and has mostly the same powers yet the show never properly explains who he is which might feel like a cop-out answer for some, personally I didn't mind it.
-The show can be pretty messy at times trying to balance focusing on the Zyuto, Nouto, the other Nouto, Jiro, Murasame, the team's inner conflict and the whole 'They Live' situation with the anoni.
-Black Onitaijin Murasame pretty much never looks well on screen.
-The pink ranger Kijino gets anti-character development in the final arc.
-The deal with Naoki Shiina can feel pretty disconnected from the overall plot.
-Some upgrades feel like the come out of nowhere.
-Jin, while an overall likeable character, spends most of the show prison without being able to do anything.

Reasons for the show strenghts:
Producer Shirakura is the best person at getting the most out of Toshiki Inoue's writing.

Reasons for the show flaws:
Shirakura wanted the team to have distinct silhouettes so he opted for CGI rangers. Toshiki Inoue's writing is insane for better or for worse. He really doesn't care much about shilling toys so some upgrades are asspulls and he didn't bother writing a proper character arc for Murasame.

Overall:
The show doesn't have a concise story and one could argue that the answer to a lot of the show's mysteries are copouts. However, the solid cast both in writing and acting, the show having ton of cool concepts mostly done well, the really good comedy and the really entertaining monsters of the week just makes this show an overall great time and arguably one of Sentai's best just because of how well executed all of these are. If you're searching for a deep plot or expect the show to answer all of its mysteries then this show will probably not be for you, but otherwise this show is a high recommend.

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Weird but fine

As the headline says, this show is weird but fine.

First there is a good story in here but its let down by poor execution and ideas that seem incomplete.

The Team
Taro is a jerk, I get that his thing is finding his emotions but there's no real progress on it till the last episode and he really doesnt even need a team since he solves everything on his own.
Saruhara has to be one of, if not the most boring sentai hero ever, he doesn't do anything, he's not interesting and no one explains how he affords anything since he hates money.
Haruka carries this show, she's easily the best charcter out of the Donbrothers, her manga slump story arc is actually interesting and has plot relevance.
Tsubasa is the second most interesting character with his fugitive plot being tied into the Juto and their eventual resolution although it takes far far too long for him to join the team properly, Unfortunatelt because of his CGI nature when transformed his focus episodes in the first 30 odd episodes are really boring (Episodes 17 and 28 are examples)
Kijino, wow do I hate this guy, I don't think I've ever hated a sentai hero as much as I do this one, he's obsessive over one woman and constantly refers to her as an object, refuses to accept really when it slaps him in the face, turns into a monster several times and we're suppsoed to feel sorry for him and to make it worse he actually gets the happy ending that he does not deserve.
Jiro is just here because every sentai show needs a 6th hero, his split personality was interesting to start but it quickly gets old and his relevance diminishes greatly after his debut arc, they tried doing something interesting in the last several episodes but the twist felt out of place

Sonoi, he's much more interesting than Tarou, actually has a developed arc over the course of the seasona nd his rivalry with Taro was good too.
Sononi, her quest to find out about love was interesting and her scenes with Tsubasa are great, I'm glad she kind of got her happy ending.
Sonoza, the third of the Noto trio, he's just kind of there, helps Haruka out with her manga occasionally.

The Villains
what villains lol
The show throws 5 bad guys at you in the last 6 episodes but they have no development, pretty much come out of nowhere except for one of them making a previous appearance earlier in the series and are just there to give the heroes someone to fight at the end, they're not even that impressive or provide a memorable final battle

The juto was where the real interest was for villains but they just kind of peter out as the show has no idea what it wants to do with them, they have no real heirarchy and like i said above, Taro just shows up and solves everything because he said so.

Murasame is the most interesting villain in the whole show and by far the most threatening and fun to watch, episode 40 where he hunts down Tsubasa and Sononi is excellent but that's pretty much it, he shows up pretty early in the series too then gets sealed away for a bit before coming back then the show just forgets about him till the last episode where he joins the heroes because the writers need him involved in the final battle too.

Their was so much to explore and develop and the show just never does it.

as for the action, its your typical tokusatsu full of great fights and awesome stunts but they heavy use of CGI during the mecha is such a let down and Pink and Black being fully CGI during battles too made their usage extremely limited.

so yeah a fun but weird series, I doubt I'll ever watch the entire thing again but episode 40 is definitely one of the best sentai episodes made.

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This show sucks

My god, this is by far the WORST Sentai show I have ever seen. The story is too confusing and all pver the place, the characters are both boring and annoying at the same time, and all these "anniversary" gimmicks are completely pointless and unnecessary. This show is meant to be a sequel to Zenkaiger, but they barely did anything to qualify as a "sequel". We have all of these "Zenkaiger" gimmicks, which are completely pointless to have around since there is very little to no connection between these two shows. The "Sentai Gears" shouldn't have been reused, and an alternate "Zenkaizer" shouldn't have existed in the first place. I expressed my opinion of this show on Reddit, which got me banned, so now I'm writing my review here.

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