Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger 20th: Fireball Booster (2024)

Low key and laid back reunion

As a 20th anniversary celebration of one of Super Sentai's best teams, Fireball Booster is a surprisingly low-key little outing, granted the Dekaranger squad already had their big emotional reunion 10 years prior so I wasn't expecting anything on that level. For the most part, this plays a lot like one of the series' more traditional adventures, one that doesn't strive to tell a more "mature" story, instead opting for just another day in the life of our favourite Space Police. It helps that main series writer Naruhisa Arakawa returned to pen the film, alongside veteran Super Sentai director Katsuya Watanabe, the writing is hilarious and production values are to the same high standard I've come to expect from this era of tokusatsu filmmaking, it doesn't miss a beat. However, the main shake-up coming into Fireball Booster is the introduction of Rui, whose addition proves to be another example of a V-Cinema film putting forward a good idea but not having enough time to let it properly develop. Regardless, it's always a joy to see this cast together again; although I get the suspicion they must live rent-free in Toei's basement given how they are almost always ready to swing into action whenever asked, even coming out of retirement in Tomozaku Yoshida's case. It's something Saban would never be able to do with Power Rangers, even if the cast of SPD is more than up for it, he's too tight-fisted to ever let that happen.

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