After almost 8 months, here's the second part of my Super Sentai 199 Hero Great Battle movie review and continuing where we left last time, the Gokaigers are forced to team up with the Goseigers as they are stuck with them in different areas governed by the Black Cross King's revived Sentai villains.
Previously, because of the Black Cross King, our heroes were transported into three different areas... which I will talk about in the next part of this review. On the second part of this review, I will talk about the character interactions, the final team battle, the final mecha battle and my personal favorite, how they handled the other guest stars in this movie.
Before writing about the character interactions in this movie, I decided to watch at least 2-5 Super Sentai Versus movies to have a general idea on how previous teams interact with the current team and I notice two major patterns. Pattern A starts with misunderstanding before they realize that they actually have something in common. Pattern B starts with the two teams understanding each other that they are heroes and they should help each other. There also other patterns in these Super Sentai Versus movies but it will go on a different review. In the case of this movie, they went with both.
The Gokaigers and the Goseigers are separated into three groups in this movie: (A) Alata and Marvelous, (B) Eri, Hyde, Ahim and Don and (C) Moune, Agri, Luka and Joe. Each group are stuck in some plane created by the three revived warriors by Black Cross King with Alata and Marvy stuck in Brajira's plane, Eri and co. stuck in Dagon's plane and Moune and co. stuck in Yogoshimacritien's plane.
Moune and co.'s part is the best between the three in my opinion as it shows a lot of similarities between the characters. Moune and Luka, though they bicker a lot for most of the time, they slowly realize that they are common after all. As for Agri and Joe, the only thing similar between the two is that they need to take care of these two bickering girls. What made the team-up fun between these guys are the fights, because of the bickering of the two Yellows, it ends up affecting their battle against Yogoshimacritien.
During the time they realize that they have something in common after all, it ends up with one of the best scenes in the movie. We see Moune and Luka wearing traditional Japanese clothing and wanting Yogoshimacritien's autograph just to make him lose his guard! This is then followed with one fun scene between the four heroes and I like it. As for Yogoshimacritien in the movie, I find him not intimidating even though he is the last boss in Go-Onger.
Eri and co.'s part is the weakest in the bunch, the four just agreed to team-up because they are heroes and they must do what they do best. We see them turn the Zombils into their clones to fool Dagon and ends up killing his foot soldiers that's about it. As for Dagon, he doesn't leave much impact compared to Brajira.
Alata and Marvelous' part is just your standard pervious Red meets current Red kind of thing. Previous Red is having trouble understanding the current Red until he realize that they have something in common after all, that they are heroes and it's their job to protect the innocent, even though Marvelous denies it. You know, to keep his pirate cool and all. As for Brajira, he is the only villain as far as I know that feels like he is not watered down for the sake of getting beaten in this movie.
Now comes the fun part in this movie, the team-up between the two teams. To make this a bit more memorable, they have no choice but to fight the clones of the past 33 Super Sentai teams! The group transformation sequence is fantastic as it properly highlights each team quite perfectly. Another thing that I like about it is the group shot after their respective roll calls. It's really great especially when they did a shot that compared the team of the Gokaigers and the Goseigers and the army of 33 Super Sentai teams.
The first thing that disappoint me in this scene is that instead of filming new footage for some of the bazooka shooting scenes for some Super Sentai teams, instead we have the use of cleaned up and updated stock footage of old Super Sentai shows. I am disappointed with it in a sense that the stock footage didn't merge well with the HD resolution of the movie. It will work if this movie was made in 2001, kinda like what Gaoranger vs. Super Sentai did with the stock footage that the said special used when they summoned the individual Red hero mecha less the carrier mechas to some shows and the Variblune and Sky Ace.
Even if that is the case, the use of stock footage bazooka shooting scenes added this sense of uniqueness to the movie and gives us this clear distinction that they are fighting clones and not the originals. I was then stand corrected about the clear distinction thing since the modern Sentai teams had a chance to use their respective team bazookas in real time. Well I guess the reason behind the stock footage is that they didn't maintain the original bazookas and Toei just dump it somewhere in their studio.
Because this is about the Gokaigers and Goseigers teaming up to defeat the clones of their seniors, we see them fight their respective team color! As expected, the fights are really fantastic. There are some interesting bits like Eri calling her attacking with Ahim "Pink Double Attack Part 2", a direct reference to the "Pink Double Attack" move in the Goseiger vs. Shinkenger movie. Another interesting is Agri and Don's team up, it's so interesting that it shows us how much of a dork Don is and that he is having a hard time fighting a lot of badass Black Super Sentai heroes!
GoseiKnight's fight with the other Sixth Heroes in Super Sentai is also entertaining, as well as the Blues being too helpful and them barely saying a word when they hit their targets. As for the Reds and Yellows, it is also fun watching those fights. One thing to note about the fight with the Reds, Kabuto Raiger is part of that group, makes sense since he was never declared a Sixth Hero in Super Sentai and that he is closer to the color Red. Same goes with Kuwaga Raiger with the Blues.
After they are done clearing all the fake heroes, it's time for them to meet some of them. I love how they handle the guest Super Sentai heroes in this movie. But we have this scene when the Gokaigers and the Goseigers meet the past Super Sentai heroes via their memories implanted inside the Ranger Keys; we see some of them doing what they do best after the Legend War. We see Daigoro Oume aka DenziBlue selling his favorite bread, Koume "Umeko" Kodou aka DekaPink patrolling with Murphy and Ryo of the Heavenly Fire Star aka RyuuRanger delivering some gyoza.
Their meeting with some laid off employee lead us to a side story about encouraging him not to give up hope since he is jobless and he has plans to sell some old property, in this case, a vintage Variblune toy that is likely to cost US$ 100 or even more depending on the condition of the toy. This jobless man will play a bigger role in the movie. It is also around this time when we saw more of these past heroes somewhere in Japan when the Black Cross King delivered his message on what happened to the Gokaigers and the Goseigers.
Aside from the obligatory angry face shots for our heroes, we learned where they are now after the Legend War. It's kinda interesting to see the cameos of past Super Sentai heroes, especially the older heroes such as DenziBlue and RyuuRanger since these are the type of heroes I want to see in the main series. The adventures of newer heroes such as ShinkenGreen, ShinkenGold, Go-On Yellow, BoukenRed, DekaPink and DekaMaster are still fresh in our minds thanks to the Super Sentai Versus movies that feature an epilogue on what they are doing after their series ended. Also, their shows haven't reached their respective 10th anniversaries during the time this movie came out in Japan!
The cameos of the other Super Sentai heroes in the movie to give the Gokaigers and the Goseigers their approval is also well done. I mean, their speeches gave me this heroic feeling inside while listening to it! Aside from the tiny nods of their respective shows, some of it gave me chills; in this case, it will be Red One's speech. Marvelous questioning these heroes about having pirates as their successors is something that I really liked. For once, Marvelous wondered if they are indeed a Super Sentai team considering that they are more like anti-heroes instead of the traditional goody-two shoes heroes that kids love.
The simple nod of approval coming from the past Super Sentai heroes is something that is rarely done in a Super Sentai series. Though we have the Super Sentai Versus movies to show us that the past team approved the current team, it is amazing how the Gokaigers and the Goseigers gained the approval of 10 Super Sentai teams is quite something. To make it really amazing is that they gained the approval of Goranger's AkaRanger and JAKQ's Big One!
My only disappointment about it is that some of the cameos felt like that there was no build up involved in it. In short, their cameos felt totally random as if Toei decided to call some of these heroes just to a make a cameo for a movie and shoot it on some green screen and give them their paycheck without them appearing in some scenes. It makes sense later thanks to some interview about the guest stars in Gokaiger. As it turns out, it was after the 2011 Earthquake that some of these past heroes approached Toei so that they can have a cameo in Gokaiger!
In addition, I also felt cheated when they have NinjaRed, Red Racer, Black Knight Hyuga and Wolzard Fire's actors voice their characters in the movie and not make a very short cameo in one way or another, especially during the scene when the Black Cross Fuhrer announced what happened to the Gokaigers and the Goseigers. Granted that we will have a Gingaman and Kakuranger episode later, but how about Red Racer and Wolzard Fire's cameos?
After gaining the approval of the past Super Sentai heroes, the Ranger Keys manifested the spirits of the past Super Sentai heroes! It's one epic scene that shows us the long history of this franchise and the heroes that protected our planet for 35 years standing together and does one epic "We are Super Sentai!" team call. To top it all off, their spirits also manifested the Super Sentai Bazooka, a large bazooka that shoots all 35 Super Sentai team logos and the 35th Anniversary logo as the finisher. But this not yet over as the Black Cross King rises once again to become the Black Cross Colossus, the true form of the Black Cross King!
It is then followed by its rampage in the city and see the older Nozomu and the jobless man help evacuate the citizens while the GokaiOh, GoseiGreat and the GoseiGround fight the Black Cross Colossus only to lose at the end. It's a nice touch seeing the two civilians help evacuate the city but them encouraging the other civilians not to give up since it will work out somehow, that is something that really amazed me in this movie. It is then followed by the civilians cheering on our heroes, another scene that sends me chills every time I watch this movie.
Since we have the Goseigers in the movie, a big believer in miracles, we then witness the greatest miracle in the history of the Super Sentai franchise, the revival of the other 31 Super Sentai mechas and 2 Super Sentai battleships that helped the past 33 teams defeat evil. But what made me scratch my head for a bit is the execution. Seriously, taking care of your old toys can revive past robots and battleships?! It is indeed a miracle and a lesson for younger fans to take care of their toys that maybe someday, it can inspire other people to stand up and not to give up!
What made it more amazing is the epic music that accompanied the arrival of these machines, which made me ignore that the robots in the back row are not moving. To make it more epic, the Goranger theme plays in the background and the greatest mecha battle in the history of the franchise begins! Since the Black Cross Colossus can't handle all of these machines, he summons the recent Super Sentai villains, much to my disappointment. It only shows how many suits that they were able to save after all these years. Seriously, where is Ragem or Veronica or even ZombieFranken? Oh well, at least the summoned villains are the ones they fought earlier and that the newer ones are related to them in a way, or in Brajira's case, his clones.
The battle of the 33 Super Sentai mechas and the 2 Super Sentai battleships made my jaw drop and sometimes, made me grin like a little kid watching Super Sentai every weekdays at 3pm or 6pm and sometimes, weekends around the same schedule. It's so epic that I don't mind if Toei will use stock footage scenes of the past Super Sentai robots performing their finishers. It only means one thing; they can't recreate all 33 Super Sentai mechas for one movie. I don't mind it one bit actually since they already did a great job with the Legend War scene and the cameos of past Super Sentai heroes. I can cut them some slack with this one. Though what surprised me for a bit since they have a new Victory Robo for this movie for some reason. Huh.
All that is left is the Black Cross Colossus, before this movie came out, it was reported that all 33 Super Sentai mecha and the 2 Super Sentai battleships will combine to create one giant mecha to destroy the Black Cross Colossus once and for all but for some reason, we have 35 colorful laser attacks. I rather have this one than seeing one bad looking combined robot. But wait, there's more! Since they have unlocked the Grand Powers of 10 Super Sentai teams in this movie, it's time for them to use the Grand Power of the Gorangers!
The Goren GokaiOh is simply the Variblune on the back of the GokaiOh and much to my disappointment; Bandai didn't release a toy version of the Variblune based on this movie, much to the disappointment of some fans. It's one neat GokaiOh formation since it pays tribute to the first Super Sentai series and second, the finisher of this formation the "Gokai Hurricane Cassiopeia", is a tribute to how the Gorangers defeated the Black Cross Castle 35 years ago. Though there are some minor changes for this movie according to some sources, the idea of its execution still the same.
At the end, the Goseigers decided to entrust their Ranger Keys to the Gokaigers for now and thus, marks the friendship of two Super Sentai teams. Meanwhile, GokaiSilver makes a brief cameo, completing the quota of 199 heroes in this movie. Guess the reason why GokaiSilver appeared at the end is because of one simple reason: he is busy being a fanboy watching his heroes defeat the bad guys in this movie.
Overall, Super Sentai 199 Heroes is one amazing movie. Aside that it's a good start of point in introducing someone to the Super Sentai franchise without saying much; it is one of those Super Sentai team-up movies that feels like Toei actually put an effort to make. It also helps that the movie is well written and that you can place this movie somewhere in the series, making the experience of watching this movie more worthwhile and enjoyable.
199 Heroes. 1 Movie.
If I compare this movie to the previous two VS Super Sentai movies, it ranks 1st in my list followed by Gaoranger vs. Super Sentai, which introduced the concept of bringing past heroes to form a dream Super Sentai team. So what's next after this movie? Expect a review of Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger the Movie: The Flying Ghost Ship and the review of OOO – Den-O – All Riders: Let's Go KAMEN RIDERS and I promise that it will not take 8 months just to finish these reviews!
