Cegarth
This review may contain spoilers
Mild spoilers ahead:
Everything the show did well:
-Overall likeable cast of characters from both the rangers and side characters by the end of the show.
-One of the most interesting final main antagonist in the franchise.
-The show switching evil factions with each arc helps the setting feel more variate and it's a good change of pace from other seasons.
-Great finale.
-With the exception of the Warstar villains from the first arc, the villains in this show are pretty enjoyable.
-Pretty enjoyable mecha fights overall.
Everything the show did bad:
-Some of the worst battle choreography in the franchise. The rangers don't have anything interesting going on in terms of fighting styles, their unique powers devolve mostly to CGI elemental abilities, swapping headers from their guns which sounds like an interesting concepts is wasted since they devolve to a stock finisher, the extra hero Gosei Knight has the best fighting style out of the rangers and he's just a worse version of the usual robocop-esque fighting style that a lot of metal heroes had, the rangers floaty fighting style is done pretty boringly throughout most of the show and the show kept some mistakes in the fighting choreography which makes the fights feel cheaper in quality. The fights in this show are hard carried by the monsters from the second arc onward, since the villains in the first arc also have really generic fighting styles and rely pretty hard on CGI abilities. Also the mecha fights while not amazing are pretty decent which helps.
-Easily on of the worst first arcs in the franchise for several reasons. The red ranger Alata and the pink ranger Eri personalities overlap too much, the black ranger Agri has a really boring personality, it feels like the staff doesn't know what to do with the yellow ranger Moune which results in her character being really inconsistent and the blue ranger Hyde who's the best one during this period is not that entertaining and also very melodramatic at times. The first villain organization, the Warstars are really generic for the most part. Aside from Datas, the show's sidecast is basically non-existent for this arc. Episode 7 is the only good episode in this arc because it was really funny and memorable. But the majority of this problems get fixed from the second arc onward.
-The black ranger Agri has a considerable worse actor than every else which can be distracting at times. Also even after the second arc starts he still remains the least interesting member of the team and he only really starts to improve as a character from episode 27 onward.
-Datas is underutilized in the second arc, but he at least gets to of screen time in the third arc to compensate.
Reasons for the show's strengths:
Producers Jun Hikasa and Go Wakamatsu came up with the idea of having multiple villain factions since angels aren't suppose to only fight demons but to protect earth from all evil, which allowed for are more interesting way of storytelling.
Main writer Michiko Yokote is good writing characters.
Reasons for the show's problems:
Main writer Michiko Yokote and producer Jun Hisaka had conflicting ideas. She wanted for the team to have infighting due to their different tribes and learn how to overcome said rivalries to become a proper team but the producer opposed. This resulted in the tribe concept being underutilized and the team getting over their disagreements feel rushed.
The main producer Jun Hisaka was occupied with a management shift within Toei, this resulted in him not being able to supervise properly at times and having to leave the show on Go Wakamatsu's and Takahito Omori's hands after episode 32.
Some rumors state that main director Takao Nagaishi was beginning to have health issues which affected the show's action.
Overall:
I feel that most people would give the show a 6 due to the first 16 episodes of the show are pretty bad. While the show improves a lot after that it's still hard to sell a show with a weak start since aside the amazing antagonist, it's not like the show suddenly becomes top-tier after the first arc. But still the show is enjoyable overall despite its flaws and would recommend it to a Super Sentai fan if they don't mind having to sit to a pretty bad first arc.
-Overall likeable cast of characters from both the rangers and side characters by the end of the show.
-One of the most interesting final main antagonist in the franchise.
-The show switching evil factions with each arc helps the setting feel more variate and it's a good change of pace from other seasons.
-Great finale.
-With the exception of the Warstar villains from the first arc, the villains in this show are pretty enjoyable.
-Pretty enjoyable mecha fights overall.
Everything the show did bad:
-Some of the worst battle choreography in the franchise. The rangers don't have anything interesting going on in terms of fighting styles, their unique powers devolve mostly to CGI elemental abilities, swapping headers from their guns which sounds like an interesting concepts is wasted since they devolve to a stock finisher, the extra hero Gosei Knight has the best fighting style out of the rangers and he's just a worse version of the usual robocop-esque fighting style that a lot of metal heroes had, the rangers floaty fighting style is done pretty boringly throughout most of the show and the show kept some mistakes in the fighting choreography which makes the fights feel cheaper in quality. The fights in this show are hard carried by the monsters from the second arc onward, since the villains in the first arc also have really generic fighting styles and rely pretty hard on CGI abilities. Also the mecha fights while not amazing are pretty decent which helps.
-Easily on of the worst first arcs in the franchise for several reasons. The red ranger Alata and the pink ranger Eri personalities overlap too much, the black ranger Agri has a really boring personality, it feels like the staff doesn't know what to do with the yellow ranger Moune which results in her character being really inconsistent and the blue ranger Hyde who's the best one during this period is not that entertaining and also very melodramatic at times. The first villain organization, the Warstars are really generic for the most part. Aside from Datas, the show's sidecast is basically non-existent for this arc. Episode 7 is the only good episode in this arc because it was really funny and memorable. But the majority of this problems get fixed from the second arc onward.
-The black ranger Agri has a considerable worse actor than every else which can be distracting at times. Also even after the second arc starts he still remains the least interesting member of the team and he only really starts to improve as a character from episode 27 onward.
-Datas is underutilized in the second arc, but he at least gets to of screen time in the third arc to compensate.
Reasons for the show's strengths:
Producers Jun Hikasa and Go Wakamatsu came up with the idea of having multiple villain factions since angels aren't suppose to only fight demons but to protect earth from all evil, which allowed for are more interesting way of storytelling.
Main writer Michiko Yokote is good writing characters.
Reasons for the show's problems:
Main writer Michiko Yokote and producer Jun Hisaka had conflicting ideas. She wanted for the team to have infighting due to their different tribes and learn how to overcome said rivalries to become a proper team but the producer opposed. This resulted in the tribe concept being underutilized and the team getting over their disagreements feel rushed.
The main producer Jun Hisaka was occupied with a management shift within Toei, this resulted in him not being able to supervise properly at times and having to leave the show on Go Wakamatsu's and Takahito Omori's hands after episode 32.
Some rumors state that main director Takao Nagaishi was beginning to have health issues which affected the show's action.
Overall:
I feel that most people would give the show a 6 due to the first 16 episodes of the show are pretty bad. While the show improves a lot after that it's still hard to sell a show with a weak start since aside the amazing antagonist, it's not like the show suddenly becomes top-tier after the first arc. But still the show is enjoyable overall despite its flaws and would recommend it to a Super Sentai fan if they don't mind having to sit to a pretty bad first arc.
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