Kamen Rider Gaim 01 – Transform! An Orange From the Sky?!

Young Kouta Kazuraba is a former member of a dance group called Team Gaim and is now living an ordinary life. But everything changed when his former teammate, Yuuya showed him something that will help the team. Along with Mai, they discovered the Sengoku Driver and thus begin the start of a new era.

But before talking about what happened to Kouta and Mai, let's first talk about the episode from the very beginning. The show opens with a scene that looks like a war of the Riders. There are a couple of things to note in this scene, first is that both Baron and Gaim have their own armies of Inves, next is that Gridon is siding with Baron and that Ryugen is siding with Zangetsu. If I will base it on promotional material, Ryugen is a member of Team Gaim, so why the heck he teamed up with his brother, Zangetsu? Is it because blood is thicker than water or is it something else?

Another thing worth noting is the mysterious woman that woke up. There is something mystical about her and likely be the source of this mess. In addition, the narration for this scene has something to do with fate that I might play a bigger role later in the series. As for the Rider war scene itself, it's kinda underwhelming since we only saw two parties charge in battle before the opening credits starts to roll. Speaking of which, I have this feeling that the opening sequence is one big foreshadowing of things to come in this series.

Now to the episode proper, the first thing I noticed is the fact that the series started the same way like how Kamen Rider Kuuga started. Both shows have a sort of opening prologue that will play a larger role later in the series and our heroes help a kid look for his mommy. The next part is basically more world building and I like it. I like it because it sets up the proper atmosphere for the show, that it takes place in some fictional city and not some generic Tokyo City. Heck, they even have some large tower that looks like a tree that is basically the town's landmark!

Another thing they established is that there is one mega corporation running this city and that kids love to dance and form their own crews called Beat Riders. Speaking of dancing, the songs they use are not energetic; the dance steps are not that "cool" and most importantly, the crowd sucks. Seriously, I can't get into the dance gimmick especially if the crowd sucks when it comes to cheering.

Next is the Inves Games, which is basically a Pokémon battle featuring Lock Seeds and zippers that opens a gateway from another dimension to summon these creatures called Inves. What's interesting about the battle is that the creatures themselves are kinda "digital" but at the same time, they are not digital. Not digital in a sense that it looks like they can attack humans once there is no human holding the Lock Seed. Guess this is one dangerous game then if there is no proper supervision. Thankfully, Kouta arrives just in time to save Mai and the rest of the crowd from the Inves.

After this scene, we are introduced to Yuuya, the leader of Team Gaim and that's it. That's all we know about him, aside from the fact that he has enough money to buy a Lock Seed and got offered by a Lock Seed dealer some belt that can help them win the Inves Games. We are also introduced to the leader of Team Baron, Kaito who's philosophy is basically the survival of the fittest. There is nothing much to talk about these two and hopefully, later episodes of the show will expand the personalities of these two characters.

Now to some more interesting stuff, I can't help but notice that the ad for the mega corporation running the city, Ygdrasill Corporation's ad is similar to the TV ad of Kamen Rider 555's Smart Brain Corporation less the Engrish. That being said, I think it is safe to conclude that the Ygdrasill Corporation is one shady corporation. Another thing worth noting is that Kouta still lives with his sister and still can't figure out what it means to be an adult. Based on this scene, it looks like that even though Kouta works to pay for his own bills, he doesn't know what to do with his life. In short, he is kinda restless.

But everything changed after receiving a message from Yuuya that he has something interesting to show the group. What's interesting about it is that Yuuya only invited Mai and Kouta to meet him and not the entire group. Considering that Kouta is a former of the team, it doesn't make sense why he needs to invite him if this belt has something to do to help Team Gaim win more Inves Games to raise their ranks. Things get more interesting when they discovered that Yuuya is missing and that there's a forest in a middle of the city and what connects it is some pocket dimension.

This is when they learned that the Inves that they summon came from this world and same thing goes with the Lock Seeds they use. Kouta picks up the Sengoku Driver lying around and wears and the fruits he picked earlier are now transformed into Lock Seeds. But because of some wild Inves attacking, they left the pocket dimension and Kouta figured out that he must attach the Lock Seed on the belt and thus, he transforms into an armored warrior, which according to the promotional material is named Kamen Rider Gaim because the show hasn't referred him in this name yet.

As for Kouta's first transformation into Gaim, it's seriously ridiculous that a giant orange just fell from the sky and is now stuck in your head will later fold into your armor. Granted it looks ridiculous but it's ridiculously cool. I love that the orange folds into a cool looking samurai armor and after the transformation process is done, some juices fly out, kinda like what happens if you squish a fruit. When it comes to his first fight, I love the fact that he is discovering how his weapons work rather than be an instant expert after holding the weapons.

Things become more interesting when the mysterious woman in the show's opening appeared and tells him about stuff related to choosing your own fate. To make more interesting is that Gaim thinks that she is Mai, just wearing a different costume but unlike Mai, she knows how to use the Sengoku Driver and its related weapons and just aided Gaim in battle. As for the naginata finisher, it's ridiculous, blame the fact that orange slices fly after he defeats the Inves. At the end of the day, Mai is unaware on what happened to Kouta and how he defeated the monster by transforming into Gaim.

Overall, Kamen Rider Gaim's first episode started with a bang, it then went into some world building where it becomes slow and quite a task to watch in some instances and it ended really well and left with a lot of mysteries for us viewers to think. Guess I can't wait to see what will happen in the next episode!

Ultraman Ginga 01 – Town of Falling Stars

Hikaru Raidou returns after years of staying overseas in his hometown only to discover that the old Ginga Shrine was destroyed before he arrives. What's interesting is that he returned because he feels like he needs to return. Is his arrival in his old town fate or goes something deeper than that?

The first few minutes of the episode gave us a proper introduction to Hikaru and his friends. All I can say is that the acting of the kids feels a bit stiff, especially with Hikaru's case in some scenes. As for the characters themselves, Hikaru is your average Joe who will help if people need his help. What I like about him in his first appearance is that he doesn't know why he decided to return but it feels like he must return. This led us to scene wherein he becomes curious on what's inside the case where his grandfather placed the shrine idol.

His curiosity to the idol and why it feels like he must get it something that I didn't expect to see in an Ultraman series. For most of the time, it's an Ultraman having a human host or them disguising as humans and that's about it. But in this case, it feels like this scene came straight out of Kamen Rider Kuuga wherein Yusuke feels that he should wear the Arcle like he is destined to wear it. When Hikaru finally had a chance to grab a hold onto the idol, we learned a couple of things on what happened prior to the start of the series.

There is a war between the Ultramen and the monsters that they once defeated. Compared to Kamen Rider Decade's Rider War and Gokaiger's Legend War, this Ultraman vs. Monsters battle scene is a bit brief and the reasons why it was brought up is for a later explanation, Hikaru's first meeting with Ultraman Taro and lastly, our look on the bad guys. But first, let's talk about Hikaru's first meeting with Taro, it was absolute hilarious. I just love the fact that Hikaru is looking for any speakers just in case it is someone who is pulling some practical joke with a doll.

Next is with the bad guys, the establishing shot in the war scene and the hand that we saw in the evil lair add up to the mystery of the identity of this shrouded figure. Because he is currently hidden in secrecy, the one who is doing most of the dirty work is a jester-like character whose job is too look for humans with evil hearts so that they can restore their own set of Monster Spark Dolls. Speaking of Spark Dolls, I just love that Hikaru continues to wonder how the heck Taro can talk while inside his doll form. Heck, he even tried looking around the Taro doll just to make sure that Taro is not hiding anything for him to talk. Considering his moves, I guess he used telepathy to communicate with Hikaru.

Thanks to Taro, we learn a bit of backstory about the war. What's interesting about the war is that it featured Ultramen who are in the Heisei Era aka the era that the producers of the franchise confirmed that most of it take place on an alternate universe. Another thing that interests me is that Taro said that the war happened over a million years ago. If this war happened million years ago, then I can safe to assume that this show takes place in an alternate universe after all Ultraman shows are over and that they landed in a planet with no prior history when it comes to Ultraman sightings.

This is when we learned that Hikaru's love interest, Misuzu knows Taro's existence and is the first one who tried enlarging Taro thanks to the Ginga Spark. This is yet another part of the show that interests me. It's interesting because having secret keepers in the Ultraman franchise is kinda rare but to have the love interest as the secret keeper can create a lot of interesting scenarios in the future. Another thing that interests me aside from that angle is that the Ginga Spark can detect other Spark Dolls and that Hikaru can use the Ginga Spark to transform into past Ultraman monsters! In this episode, he transformed into Black King.

The transformation sequence into Black King felt like it came straight from your traditional Ultraman transformation sequence. Also, I just love that Hikaru is enjoying every second he is as a monster before he starts fighting the MOTW, Thunder Darambia. The fight between Black King and Thunder Darambia is amazing and I am smiling like a little kid just watching this fight. This is something I love to see, a fight between monsters! What made it more interesting is how it materialized. Like I said, it is all thanks to the dark energy provided by evil humans but what surprised me is that they are the ones controlling the MOTW!

Because they are the criminals we saw earlier, I was expecting that Hikaru as Black King can easily handle it but nope, he is beaten badly by these two. In his weakened state, a mysterious Spark Doll appeared in Hikaru. This Spark Doll is the Ultraman Ginga Spark Doll and touching it revealed how the war ended. The original Ginga ended the war as he faced the man with the mysterious Dark Spark. With the Ultraman Ginga Spark Doll, Hikaru transforms into the said hero. The transformation sequence looks great but his entrance, man it is simply amazing.

Ginga's fight with Thunder Darambia is simply fantastic. It's quick and your standard Ultraman fight as we see two giants duke it out in the battlefield. Finally, Ginga's finisher is something that I didn't expect from an Ultraman, but considering that it is not the iconic beam blast, then I guess he might have multiple finishers. Unlike the previous Ultramen exits, Ginga just reverts back to Hikaru without doing the trademark flying away. This scene made me realize one thing; Ginga will not be your average Ultraman series.

Himitsu Sentai Goranger 01 – A Crimson Red Sun! The Invincible Goranger

All five assembled! Goranger!

3 years ago, I wrote a review of Goranger's 1st episode. After checking my old review, I decided why not rewatch the 1st episode again and review the episode using my current format because... why not? Anyway, in this episode, 5 EAGLE bases were attacked by the Black Cross Army; the ones who survived formed a team to fight this organization that aims to conquer the world! They are the Secret Squad Goranger!

After three years, Goranger's 1st episode still remains one of my favorite Super Sentai 1st episodes because for starters, it literally kicked off with a bang. By a bang, I mean explosions, buildings destroyed, people died because of biological warfare (!) and soldiers were killed by enemy foot soldiers that are considered by most people as disposable. Even if that is the case, at least there is one survivor for every EAGLE branch in Japan. These survivors are Tsuyoshi Kaijo, Akira Shinmei, Daita Ooiwa, Peggy Matsuyama and Kenji Asuka.

What's interesting about these survivors is that after what happened to their bases, they continue with their lives as soldiers and started training to become Gorangers. What really interest me is that they know their color designations and how to transform! I can understand that they know how to use their weapons and such since they are soldiers, but them knowing how to transform and color designations? That is something I can't understand until now.

Tsuyoshi as AkaRanger is observing his new teammates; he then sends them a message to meet up at Snack Gon. The best part about it is how he delivered the message, which range from really cool, to something that I cannot comprehend. The Gorangers meet up and in their first meeting; the one that stood up is Daita. Daita is the big guy who likes to eat too much curry and can't figure out a joke that Kenji told him. That alone is one reason why I immediately like this guy. After Tsuyoshi arrives, they decided not to wait for Akira and enter a secret chamber. Not surprising, Akira is waiting outside of the entrance of their base!

My initial impression on Akira is that he is the cool guy. The opening scene also gave me an impression that he can be a good team leader if he wants too. So yeah, if Tsuyoshi is not the leader, Akira is the obvious choice for the team leader. Now that the team is assembled, it is time to open the secret base. I can’t say much about it because it looks kinda small for a secret base. Inside the base, we heard a mysterious voice, the team's commander. This is something that intrigues me, if they are the survivors of the 5 EAGLE branches, who is the guy ordering them to move out and fight the Black Cross Army?

Anyway, after learning that the Black Cross Army kidnapped some kindergarten students... for some reason, it is time for our heroes to spring into action. We saw bits of Tsuyoshi's leadership skills and Daita being too eager to join the fun. By fun, I mean, ride the Variblune, a ship that has a dog for a face and looks really cool. This is when we saw some really good use of practical special effects to give us an impression that some giant airplane mecha just left its hangar. The use of great camera angles gave me an impression that the Variblune is indeed real.

As for the rest, they are the ones who look for the Black Cross Army, leading them to some abandoned warehouse wherein we learned from their teacher that the kids are inside the bus that is inside the warehouse, which is about to explode thanks to the Black Cross Army. Seriously, for an army that gave us one heck of an opening scene featuring a lot of dead soldiers, their second plan in this series is something that felt like a vengeful 5-year-old kid will do to his/her classmates. For the first enemy organization, they make a really bad first impression.

As expected, the kids are saved thanks to Akira and Daita ramming Variblune's giant claw on the warehouse's roof, thus saving the kids. Now that we are done with it, Tsuyoshi is pissed with the Black Cross Army and decides to face them alone. For the first Sentai team leader, Tsuyoshi likes to let his emotions get the best of him. Granted, he knows how to delegate his soldiers but the fact that he rushed towards his enemies without his teammates is something that I think, a good leader should not do. As I have expected, he is surrounded by the enemy foot soldiers and thankfully, his teammates arrived just in time to help him!

Now that all five are assembled, it is time for the first team roll call! The first team roll call is one of those badass moments in the series. One by one, a Goranger pops out and tells his/her color designation till they reached Tsuyoshi who then transforms into AkaRanger. Now that we are done with it, it is time for the show's first team battle! It's fun, action packed and something I expect from the 70's. But I think the best part about it is not that, but the team's weapon system. It's really cool to see that their weapons came from their visors. This is when I start to wonder how they developed the Goranger suits and the like.

The team finisher, called the Goranger Storm is seriously simple. It's just them passing a football (or soccer) ball till it reaches Red who then performs the finishing kick. Watching it again, I can't believe that the franchise evolved from this into those fancy bazooka or team sword finishers that we have right now. At the end, the Black Cross Army is now aware of the existence of this secret squad and its officials now want to kill them. But never fear, the Gorangers will not be defeated by these masked villains!