User:StrangerAtaru/Sentai Guide

This is a personal opinion guidebook regarding my personal Super Sentai feelings and choices. This will contain information regarding a quick guide, best and worst episodes. More may come later somehow. An abridged list of my preferences are on my front page.

Himitsu Sentai Gorenger

 * Currently watching, comments to come later

J.A.K.Q. Dengekitai

 * Brief Review: It's hard to follow up essentially the series that made live-action team shows a reality and while Shotaro Ishinomori does try, the series seems to have problems even from the get-go. The early third have a great maturity doing things you'd never expect from Sentai anymore with a quartet of tragic heroes who have become living weapons to fight a merciless enemy. But the early arcs are bogged down by a lot of tragedy with the team feeling like they just get hit with everyone they know getting massacred left and right. The middle third lightens things up a bit, which gets positive but sometimes gets a bit silly (a talking hamster...nuff said) and feels like a completely different show. But then the final third comes along...and it is a different show.  The villains go bigger, things go all over the place, and a fun new leader who does really try to save everything but somehow feels bigger than life...too big at times. (then again he was called in from another show after it had ended) The final two episodes feel like the whole show in a nutshell, with it starting with a really dark episode before giving us a very WTF ending. There are good things about the season, like two awesome members (and maybe a third after he lightens up) and it is fun seeing Big One in action, but the show is such a mess that you just have patience or else you'll go nuts.
 * JUDGEMENT TIME: Not for people starting out in Sentai; if you want to see it, be prepared for anything, particularly for the roller coaster of changes!
 * Best Episodes
 * Also Recommend
 * Worst Episode
 * Also Terrible

Battle Fever J

 * Brief Review: This series really doesn't realize at first that it is the revival of Sentai after its J.A.K.Q. cancellation due to it's intention: a team inspired by Marvel superhero Captain America fighting against an organization influencing the world secretly. Because of which, the first half of the season (after an incredibly continuous opening arc introducing the franchise's first giant robot) feels really hard getting through; there are fun episodes but too many just feel like they were throwing things at a wall and seeing what works and it doesn't help that the writers at time don't know who these characters are. But somehow...it gets better: the improvements start when a weird idea was dropped for a real heroine and a future main writer joins the staff and while there are still problems (mainly a great character ending up in the worst departure ever; even if his replacement does work well with the new team), the show is much better in the second half. Aside the replacements, there is a breakout star and the mentor is amazing (even if he's tied to a really weird endgame); but this is a season you have to be patient with, mining for the good amidst a lot of junk in the "not Sentai" that becomes the last true 70s Sentai before the 80s and the franchise's evolution begins.
 * JUDGEMENT TIME: Try to sample a couple of the episodes from the first half, particularly the Battle Fever Robo arc; once Uehara and Soda take over in the second half, it becomes much better...but prepare for some hiccups of bad or really strange.
 * Best Episodes
 * Also Recommend
 * Worst Episode
 * Also Terrible

Denshi Sentai Denziman

 * Unscheduled, please check back later

Taiyo Sentai Sun Vulcan

 * Unscheduled, please check back later

Dai Sentai Goggle V

 * Brief Review: Pure and simple: Hirohisa Soda takes over the franchise, cuts out all the clutter and nonsense from Uehara's era, brings back the girl Ranger big time with one of the most memorable and a lot of really cool teamwork and moves (and oh yeah, the crazy rhythmic gymnastics stuff), streamlines it with a lot of Rider and other toku stuff and with a story about the responsibilities of technology, protecting those who will use it responsibly for the future, and essentially a villain creating weird genetic beings to continue to prove its existence and win an arms race with humanity. A vastly underrated season; not really for those used to more modern story-driven Sentai, though, and my only nitpick being that one villain in particular probably deserved a more epic ending but their end was still decent.
 * JUDGEMENT TIME: A personal favorite and an underrated gem for fans of earlier 80s Sentai, if you can get past the whole "rhythmic gymnastics" bias everyone gives this season
 * Best Episodes
 * Also Recommend
 * Worst Episode
 * Also Terrible

Kagaku Sentai Dynaman

 * COMING SOON IN 2014!!!

Choudenshi Bioman

 * Unscheduled, please check back later

Dengeki Sentai Changeman

 * Brief Review: The first 80s Sentai I completed and a very meaty one that typically seems to be ignored, doing a great job in creating a mythos and developing an entire universe of memorable characters, including interesting heroes and villains that range from sympathetic to downright cruel. There's a great universality of these heroes and villains showing how similar we are even with our differences, showing that war may not be the answer or the be-all of our interaction with others, whether throughout our world or beyond it. Some strange things happen in the endgame, particularly with two villains in particular and there are more questions than answers that occur with a final revelation, but it's good altogether.
 * JUDGEMENT TIME: Possibly the best Sentai to emerge from the 1980s, creating a powerful space epic with universal themes that go beyond the franchise.
 * Best Episodes
 * Also Recommend
 * Worst Episode
 * Also Terrible

Choushinsei Flashman

 * Brief Review: A series that knows exactly how it is set up and how it will end...but getting between the two can be a problem. The opening episodes are marvelous, with one of the best Ranger casts and villain groups in franchise history.  An early arc further improves with an amazing side-villain who remains relevant to the end, but with an episode and a half of weird things between the relevant parts, foreshadowing the problems.  The middle has good episodes and a great build-up of tension between two threats but an extremely pointless mid-point arc that seems to try and increase problems almost artificially and the stupidest upgrade story in Sentai history. The final eight to ten episodes are all golden, though, with one of the most saddening and emotional end-games in the franchise, making all the grief getting to it worthwhile.  Even with the dumb mid-point arc,  it's still a great season.
 * JUDGEMENT TIME: Incredible opening, good middle with troublesome parts, heartbreaking finale; even with storytelling flaws it still is a top-rate classic
 * Best Episodes
 * Also Recommend
 * Worst Episode
 * Also Terrible

Hikari Sentai Maskman

 * Currently watching, comments to come later

Choujuu Sentai Liveman

 * Brief Review: While I'm generally positive with Hirohisa Soda with the seasons I've seen, this is probably the season with him at his worst. There is nothing wrong with the concept, involving the betrayal of friends and the fight to either defeat or redeem those who ran off to work for one who can help them achieve intellectual superiority. But the problem is that with this being the team of "life", we see the writing at its preachiest, with everything being alive and essentially every episode feeling like a guilt complex that makes you feel like you can't do anything that harms "life".  It doesn't help that the heroes are essentially the epitome of the 80s and that there are some really bizarre and weird twists going on.  But the season does have some interesting ideas even amidst the junk: they have reason to expand to two further members, there's a fun biting satire at the horrible effects of the Japanese education system of its time, and the end-game (up until the last episode and a half where it just gets terrible) is really captivating seeing the villains fall apart due to the mechanisms of the mastermind for his ultimate goal. (oh and there's an adorable robot girl...) There is redemption for both the villains and this season...you just have to bare with a lot of turmoil to get to them.
 * JUDGEMENT TIME: Prepare for a lot of preachiness because the "life" concept ends up leading to Sentai at its worst; but the satire of Japanese education and the fight to redeem the traitors actually does keep it entertaining.
 * Best Episodes
 * Also Recommend
 * Worst Episode
 * Also Terrible

Kousoku Sentai Turboranger

 * Unscheduled, please check back later

Chikyuu Sentai Fiveman

 * Unscheduled, please check back later

Choujin Sentai Jetman

 * Unscheduled, please check back later