Let's Watch! Goukaiger and OOO!

[Nate]

Welcome, one and all, to Let's Watch! Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger and Kamen Rider OOO!

So, what are Gokaiger and OOO? Good question! Both Gokaiger and OOO are live-action shows that employ special effects, and are known in Japan as "tokusatsu." Let's cover Gokaiger first, as it's the newer of the two and the one most people here are probably going to be following.



A group of young pirates come from space to Earth to obtain the "The Greatest Treasure in the Universe." However, they end up facing the Space Empire Zangyack, who were sealed away by the 34 Sentai groups until they awaken and resume their invasion of Earth. As a result, the space pirates use the powers of the older teams to fight Zangyack as the Gokaigers.



Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger ("kaizoku" meaning "pirate" and "sentai" meaning squadron/team) is part of the Super Sentai Series, produced by Toei and Bandai. The first Super Sentai show aired in 1975 and was developed by Shotaro Ishinomori...who you may also know as the creator of such other works as Cyborg 009, Kamen Rider, Kikaider, Inazuman, and Skull Man. Yeah, dude's a legend.

Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger is the 35th series in the Super Sentai series. Each show has a theme, and Gokaiger's is pirates. It is also an anniversary series, meaning that it is a celebration of all 34 series preceding it. But don't worry! You don't need to have seen those series to enjoy Gokaiger! Gokaiger will stand alone, but also be an extra special treat for those who have seen past series, and supposedly will include many of the original actors of those series as well!

The Gokaiger themselves made their first appearance in the recent annual Sentai team-up movie, called Tensou Sentai Goseiger vs. Shinkenger: Epic on Ginmaku. However this was merely a cameo appearance (similar to Goseiger's cameo in Shinkenger vs. Go-Onger) and isn't necessary to watch to enjoy the series.

Our second series is Kamen Rider OOO.



Eiji Hino is a man who has no dreams, no job, and no family. When animal-like monsters called Greeed awaken after their 800 year slumber to attack humans and feed off of their desire, a bird-type Greed called Ankh gives Eiji a belt and three Medals to fight the Greed. This allows Eiji to become Kamen Rider OOO. The mysterious Kougami Foundation approaches him and begins assisting him in his fight against the Greed, but their true motives are not clear.



Kamen Rider OOO ("Kamen" meaning "mask") is part of the Kamen Rider series, also produced by Toei and Bandai, and as mentioned before, developed by Shotaro Ishinomori. The series has been around for longer than Super Sentai, the first Kamen Rider series airing in 1971, but has less shows than Super Sentai due to a hiatus at the beginning of the Heisei era (1989), and with the exception of three movies, was not revived until 2000 with Kuuga. For this reason, Kamen Rider is divided into two groups, the Showa era (all series including Black RX despite it airing into the Heisei period) and the Heisei era (all series after Black RX). Note however that some fans consider Shin, ZO, and J to be Showa despite them being well into the Heisei era; the reason for this is some fans hold Ishinomori's death to be the true passing of the Heisei Riders.

OOO is the twelfth Heisei series and the twenty-first overall. OOO made his first appearance in the Kamen Rider W movie Kamen Rider W Forever: A to Z/The Gaia Memories of Fate. However, his appearance was a small cameo and viewing that movie is not necessary to understand the show.

Gokaiger airs Sundays at 7:30 AM, and OOO follows it at 8:00 AM.

Whew. I've talked way too much! So with the introductions out of the way, let's get ready to Let's Watch Gokaiger and OOO!

[Nate]

There's already a TON of stuff to talk about! I don't even know where to start!

Well okay, I sorta do. First of all, Gokaiger aired yesterday, and yes, there's already subs out. I got the subs from a different source than the ones I PM'd you, so if you want to go ahead and watch it now, then PM me for my source...otherwise you'll be waiting until Thursday or Friday for subs. Anyway, let's talk about Gokaiger episode 1!

BECAUSE HOLY CRAP THAT WAS AMAZING. The fights were well-choreographed, the space battle was awesome, and I like the characters. Well...all except Joe at the moment. Joe is just kind of there. The other four have distinct developed personalities in this episode, but not him. I'm sure he'll get better later but for now he doesn't have much going for him. As for me, Don is already my favorite character.

So let's talk about references! There's a TON of them already. First of all, Snack Safari. This is a Sun Vulcan reference, as Snack Safari was where Sun Vulcan's headquarters were.

Second, Goranger Hurricane. This was the signature move of Goranger, and the deal with it is that the football would turn into whatever the enemy was weak against, which is why it turned into a dump truck there. Momoranger (the pink one) would build the bomb quickly (she was an explosives expert) and Akaranger (the red one) would tell her what to put inside the bomb before they used it.

Finally, during the Gokaiger transformation sequence, you can see three X's and a V flying at them and forming their suits. This is because Gokaiger is the 35th Super Sentai series (XXXV in Roman numerals).

I like Walz Gil's character design. Also, fun fact. Insarn is voiced by Kikuko Inoue. She's pretty famous, and has voiced characters such as Belldandy in Ah My Goddess, Kasumi Tendou in Ranma, Rune Venus in El-Hazard, Sanae in Clannad...oh and Lust in Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood. As you can tell, usually her characters are soft-spoken and sweet, although she has done the occasional villainous role (Lust, Panther in Saber Marionette J, and so on). So yeah, continuing the good Sentai tradition of famous voice actors for villains (Goseiger for example had Nobuo Tobita as Buredoran, who did Kamille in Zeta Gundam, and Shinkenger had Romi Paku as Usukawa Dayu, who is pretty famous in her own right).

I'm pumped. I'm excited. I don't think this series will have the problems that Kamen Rider Decade had, so I don't feel bad about getting my hopes up. This is gonna be a fun ride.

[Atria35]

Okay, just finished checking out Gokaiger ep. 1- I think that I really should watch EVERY episode while pumped up on chocolate cake! This was like a big ball of nostalgia topped with awesome sauce!

I don't even know where to begin. All the effects and fights brought back memories of having danced around the room, pretending to be a Power Ranger, doing cool moves and hurting myself. Hocked up on sugar, I think I might have had to pause and keep myself from doing it as I watched this one!

I love the outfits. They're very pirate-y and colorful, and that's important- if you're going to be over the top, do it right!

The sentai themselves are pretty cool- I'm not a fan of Marvelous just yet (though I am a fan of his name! ), but I would watch just to look at Luke. Soooo handsome! (not much personality, I agree. But he's cute. I forgive him.) And I think it's totally awesome that Kikuko Inoue is in here- Just amazing! But I admit it, I'm a bigger fan of Luca right now. Her personality appeals to me better.

I am no expert as to well-coordinated fights, but I did think they were well-done, and has some very cool things in them. The green sentai acting the acrobat was hilarious! The space battle was also cool to watch. I admit it- there's just something about flying pirate ships! I don't know what it was, but it got my blood pumping!

And it was also cool to see some of the incarnations of the Sentai. I think I'll be eager to see what they go through as the shows go on.

Overall, I'm really happy to be watching this one. Sooo fun!

[ShiroiHikari]

Oh man, I need to watch Goukaiger soon!

[Ante Bellum]

Going to wait for the subs. Friday's a free day for me anyways.

[Nate]

OOO 22 is out! I think I may be the only one watching this one, but I'm gonna talk about it anyway. Feel free to continue the Gokaiger discussion. :p

This episode was pretty fantastic. The TaJaDor Giga Scan was totally awesome, and I liked how OOO used the Condor legs during the fight against Uva and the Yummy. The speech about justice that Eiji gave to Kanbayashi was done very well, I think. It didn't seem too contrived or overt. It works well with Eiji's character, specifically his anti-war stance (I'm still betting on Date having been a mercenary on the other side of that war, and from the preview I think that might be the focus of next week's episode). I also liked the look Ankh gave to Kanbayashi after the speech was over, that was pretty funny.

I'm not sure why Uva stood there and did nothing while Birth was drilling into him. I mean yeah, okay, Uva was feeling confident and going "Your attacks don't do anything" but to just stand there? Eh, whatever. Uva hasn't always been the brightest guy.

Ankh with chocolate ice cream. I love it. This was a really good story arc...and I have a feeling the painting in Dr. Maki's office has some greater significance than just being a painting. Maybe it holds some power? Or there's something hidden behind it.

[Agloval]

I also stumbled across some earlier-than-expected Goukaiger subs. Thanks for filling in some of the background, Nate (I thought Goranger Hurricane was awesome in a lateral-thinking kind of way).

I'm a complete newcomer to sentai, though not to toku in general. Didn't even watch any Power Rangers as a child (because we had no TV), though I vaguely remember some friends liking them.

Some first impressions:
- Wow, that was a lot more action-packed than I expected.
- The pink one thinks she's a Grammaton Cleric. This is a good thing.
- This involves the heroes hijacking previous heroes' powers ala Decade?
- I enjoyed the villains -- a foppish ineffective aristocrat with two sycophants and a professional for subordinates.

Overall very positive, but then I usually like things at first sight.

[Nate]

- This involves the heroes hijacking previous heroes' powers ala Decade?

Not exactly. Decade had to journey to other worlds to gain his powers back. Gokaiger (unless episode two changes this) has them with all their powers ready to go right from the get-go. Also the Riders Tsukasa visited already had their powers, whereas with this one, all the previous Sentai gave up their powers. This probably means that any Sentai they run across can't transform, and the focus may be on them helping those teams to regain their powers.

It's hard to say at this point. All we know is they currently have the powers of all the previous heroes at their beck and call (except for the "Sixth Rangers" and a handful of other one-off characters).

[Rocketshipper]

it started already!? I want to watch. I wonder when that particular site is going to put up the first episode, they put up goseiger 50 the other day.

[Rocketshipper]

Just watched Gokaiger episode one. Time for some thoughts.

First the good: I *really* like the design of the Gokaiger suits and weapons. They really did a good job of combining the pirate motif with super sentai. And their giant robot is freakin AWESOME looking! Waaaay cooler looking than the robots in the last few super sentai series I saw. While we havn't seen very much o the characters yet, since its only the first episode, I can see some potential for the future. I really like Marvelous; he has a very intriguing personality to me (and its nice that it appears we have a red ranger who is NOT a total spazz ) I also really like the Pink Ranger; she has that whole "arrogant princess" thing going for her without actually coming off as arrogant. And the action for the episode was excellent. It was cool to see ALL those sentai teams fighting together in the opening, and then doing their super huge shockwave attack. And the fight scene where the Gokaiger team first transformed was GREAT. I especially loved the duelwielding, and how they kept switching weapons with eachother. And then when they utilized the old team's powers. I would have liked to have seen them utilize the older powers more, but we'll have the entire series to see them doing that I guess ^^. LOL, and it was funny that Magiblue was a guy this time. lol, it will be funny to see some of the gender and color swaps as they become past teams (Tiger ranger will be a girl!! Just like how it was in power rangers. And when they do Kakuranger, who's going to be White and who's going to be Black?) The ending theme is pretty cool. I'm sure we'll have a lot more variations of it to add in the rest of the teams. And the instrumental BGM so far is cool.

As for the negative points: well, I do think the "action figure transformation keys" are kind of lame, and this team is yet another team with cell phone morphers, which are getting kind of old now. Its just not as cool or intimidating for them to be pulling out these little plastic figures for them to transform. I'm not a fan of the theme song yet either, although the intro sequence itself is good. It just...doesn't really get me pumped up in the way that the themes for Abaranger, Dekaranger, or Go-onger did. And...I'm really not a big fine of the "In Media Res" type opening episodes. Go-onger did this too; just introducing the rangers already with their powers and jumping right into the action. Sometimes it can work, but a lot of times it can just make the audience feel lost, and thats how I felt a bit here. What happened to all the sentai after they did their big explosion attack? Why do the Gokaiger have everyone's powers already, and how did they get their own unique powers? If the old teams drove away the Zangyack empire before, why are they back now? (and isn't it convenient that the new sentai team happens to arrive just as they resume their invasion? ) And how did all these teams even come together in the first place, are all the old series still cannon, or is this some AU universe where all the 34 previous teams gained powers at the same time? Am I thinking about this too hard? : Now I'm sure that most of these questions will probably be answered in future episodes, through flashbacks and exposition, but I'm just going on record to say I usually don't like just being "thrown in" to the plot like this.

By just one episode, I can;t judge wether or not this anniversary tribute will be better or worse than what Decade did, but I will say that so far Gokaiger's approach seems a little more "kiddie-ish" than what Decade did. Having the school teacher standing off to the side explaining to her little kids about the teams was a bit much for me. I am really curious to see how this season will get dubbed into Power Rangers, if/when they finish with Goseiger.

I don't think this series will have the problems that Kamen Rider Decade had, so I don't feel bad about getting my hopes up.

What were the problems that you felt Decade had? I'm really interested to know; I've never really been to the other forums that discuss these series, so I havn;t had the chance to discuss or see discussions on the series, except for places like TV Tropes.

[Nate]

The purpose of Decade, from what I understand, was not only to sell toys (obviously) but to connect the Rider series that had previously been stand-alone. Y'know the whole "Destroy everything, connect everything" phrase that was prominent in the show. Even though most of the Vs. movies are AU, Sentai has more or less remained connected in a sense, so there's no need to try and connect everything.

That brings me to my second point. A big problem people had with Decade was that almost all the worlds were AU. We weren't gonna get to see Mizushima Hiro reprise his role as Tendou Souji again for Decade because it's an AU world, and part of the hype for Decade was wanting to see past Riders coming back...not just the suits/powers but the personalities, which were swapped out for no-name actors and throwaway characters.

Although there is a LITTLE bit of AU shenanigans going on here (Burai/DragonRanger was in the opening, and he kind of died during Zyuranger) supposedly they are going to be the same characters as the original shows...we won't have to worry about who the "new" GekiRed is going to be for example, because it should be good ol' Jan.

Finally Decade was supposed to be a metaseries type deal that was to be taken seriously and stuff. But Sentai is inherently goofy and has guys running around in bright spandex so I don't think they're going to try and pull off a deep and meaningful plot like Decade tried to do. They're just gonna have fun with it, which means we should hopefully avoid things like massive plot holes or unresolved plot threads.

[MightiMidget]

So, I didn't want to download, and all I could find was ep 1 without subs. But I watched it anyways!

Though, my only comments are:

1) I enjoyed it! It was quite over the top, but in a good way.
2) The costumes. are. awesome. I want the red coat. xD
3) This was not as cheesy as I was expecting, maybe because I expected it to take itself more seriously though.

That's all I can really say without knowing entirely what was going on. ops:

[Agloval]

Having the school teacher standing off to the side explaining to her little kids about the teams was a bit much for me.

That very brazen here is your explanation now explanation got a chuckle out of me, but then again I did actually need the explanation in the first place.

[Nate]

The torrent for HD episode 2 is out, so I've watched it subbed! Although I did watch the live stream of it on Saturday too. XP But I didn't want to discuss it until I knew what was going on.

SO MUCH STUFF TO TALK ABOUT. Okay, first of all, I was surprised they did the second verse of the ending theme song so quickly. I thought this was going to be like Go-onger where they did the first verse for a few episodes, then the second for a few episodes. Anyway, you'll see some familiar faces in this version of the ending, because it finally hits where North America started adapting from.

AKARED IS IN THIS EPISODE HOLY CRAP AKARED. Okay so for those who don't know which is...well, probably all of you, the 30th anniversary of Super Sentai was celebrated in Boukenger vs Super Sentai. In that, there was a special anniversary warrior named AkaRed who could transform into any red Sentai warrior of the past. You can see him at the beginning of this video, and again at like 1:48 or so:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-XgDWldC8k

Of course, given that AkaRed was the first Sentai hero to be able to transform into past Sentai, and that this is an anniversary series revolving around the same premise, a lot of people wondered...would AkaRed be involved? And the answer is...he saved Captain Marvelous's life and gave him the Ranger Keys. They showed very little of him and made sure not to say his name...although after he runs at the villains, right before the explosion, you can see Marvelous saying "AkaReddo" though you can't hear it, proving who it is. But they probably want AkaRed's full reveal to be at a Big D*** Heroes moment so they're keeping him semi-mysterious for now.

Back to Gokaiger. First I'll have to give you another bit of info you guys probably won't know. The figure in the black cloak at the end of the episode is Kai/MagiRed from MagiRanger. He'll play a bigger role in next week's episode though.

Don keeps getting beat up. He even got injured twice in the ending credits! I'm liking Ahim a bit more too. She's a really interesting character to me, and it looks like she cares a lot about Marvelous.

Mecha battle! Bandai has finally learned how to use CG in mech battles in an awesome way! I did like the bad guy thinking he was messing up Gokai-oh but was really just unknowingly activating one of their weapons. Also that awesome Final Wave! And that five red fight! SO MUCH AWESOME.

I love this show. So much.

[Rocketshipper]

Gokaiger episode 2!!

-So I wonder who the original Gokaired was who gave him the treasure chest. Whose voice was that?
-Wow, people getting shot, this is surprisingly violent.
-O_O someone else using the transformation trinket! And he's all short, hahah
-Gokaigreen looks like he's feeling himself up during the role call
-Gokaiger memory break!!!!!!! *boom*
-the sound effect for their swords is kinda starting to get annoying
-DEKARANGER!!!!!!! WOOO! over so soon
-4 giant monsters at once!?!?!?
-what the heck, they fly all the way out to the moon to combine?
-O_O_O_O_O_O!!!!! KAI!?!?!?!?!?

OK, I'm all in now. I can;t wait for next week's episode!!!

One thing I'm kind of worried about with this though; with such an emphasis on using previous ranger powers all the time, it seems like they won't be able to establish the Gokaiger team as unique in itself.

[Nate]

-So I wonder who the original Gokaired was who gave him the treasure chest. Whose voice was that?

It wasn't the original GokaiRed. It was AkaRed. :p He's voiced by Toru Furuya. Yes, that Toru Furuya, the one who played Amuro in Gundam and Mamoru in Sailor Moon.

-what the heck, they fly all the way out to the moon to combine?

Well, it does answer the question of "Why doesn't the monster just attack them while they're combining?"

Someone on /m/ also mentioned another old Sentai reference. At the beginning when Navi is all "What would you do?" it's directly referencing the ending song for Denjiman.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2n3l1-xScU

At the 54 second mark is what Navi is saying.

As for Kamen Rider OOO this week, nothing particularly interesting just yet, although they're still tight-lipped about how Date knows Eiji. Also I would have expected Eiji to be completely ignorant of Sakura's charms...it's interesting that he got taken in by her too. I guess Eiji is a man after all!

[mechana2015]

So I decided to give Goukaiger a try and it was pretty awesome. I love the pirate theme, and having never seen any of the original Sentai (just Americanized Power Rangers), the villains seem better portrayed. Gokai Yellow and Green are my faves so far, but I was pretty happily surprised when Gokai Pink went gunkata, and when they all went Red was unexpected and really cool.

[Nate]

Huzzah, Gokaiger 3!

I probably didn't get as much out of this episode as some people because I have never seen Magiranger. However, Don continues to be completely freaking awesome in every conceivable way. Also BIG ONE! And an awesome mecha fight, MagiDragon is cool.

We seem to have an overarching plot now. They will have to learn how to fully use all of the previous 34 Super Sentai powers. So each episode will probably focus on them learning how to achieve the maximum skill of a particular team...looks like Dekaranger or Gekiranger will be the focus next week.

The final verse of the ending song this week too! I didn't like this one as much as the other two though. I dunno, it didn't really flow well to me. Next week will probably be the first ending song again, and they'll cycle through like that.

Also, OOO! RABU RABU COMBO. And ShaUTa! ShaUTa is totally sweet, turning into water and that awesome drill kick and its Fist of the North Star attacks. Also Doctor Maki acting bizarre and weird as usual, and I guess it turns out Date at least wasn't on the other side of the civil war Eiji was caught up in. Next week should be a BIG episode for OOO though, holy crap.

[Rocketshipper]

Episode 3!!!

-yay! Magiranger style title!
-random comment, but what do you wanna bet that the Gokaiger powers are somehow derived from Akared's powers? they do have that similar shoulder collar thing, and of course the whole "changing into other rangers" power.
-ok, that was kind of an abrupt cut. first they're getting blasted by an attack, and then suddenly they're all seperated and unmorphed. Thats almost like the editing on the original power rangers.
-yay, sounds like Magirangers music!!
-"magika? Magi-daiyou" ok, now we're going to start doing that again. Of course.
-Seems Kai lost all his spazzyness.
-female black rangers! and AbareBlack!
-hahaha, Captain Marvelous is...well, Marvelous! that was hilarious *fling*
-nice stratigy. Marvelous is certainly living up to the "reckless" side of the red ranger character archetype.
-hahahahah "its a new magic spell" "they're distributed via mail?"

Pretty good episode. Though I'm a bit dissapointed that Kai was basicly just a cameo.

[Nate]

The full opening and ending are out for Gokaiger!

Here is the full opening. IT'S TOTALLY AWESOME HOLY CRAP.

Here is the full ending which is also FREAKING SWEET. DAT INTRO.

[Agloval]

I managed to catch up with episode 3 this evening.

Loved the magician's cape thing that Magiranger(?) had.

Still surprised at just how action-packed this is. I can remember about three scenes in this episode which didn't involve danger or fighting!

Here's a random thought: I'm sure this is pure coincidence, but Don's problem-solving approach, nickname and terrible/brilliant choice of clothes all make him feel like a kind of young Doctor Who.

[Wolf-man]

How did you guys see episode three already?
Anyway, Gokaiger is awesome! I loved the first 2 episodes. It is such a major geek fest for Sentai fans. XD
I really hope that they have several guest characters from the other series and that Aka Red plays a major part cause he's awesome! Plus 2 episodes and it's already better than Decade...*shudders*

[Nate]

How did you guys see episode three already?

Because it was subbed by Sunday evening. :p I guess you could say the subbers went into...over time. Wink wink. Nudge nudge. Yes, a little bit of "Gokaiger over time" is always welcome. Double wink.

[Wolf-man]

what? It's not on the TVNihon website.

[Nate]

That's because they didn't go into "over time." Yes, some subbers definitely go into "over time" when they do Gokaiger. Wiiiiiiiiiiink.

[Rocketshipper]

episode 4!

-you know, I'm really not getting into the villians of this season yet. So far, they just seem so...generic. again, probably waaaay too early now to judge for sure...but I have a feeling that these bad guys won;t be sticking with me the way some in the past have.
-that sword spamming attack was super cool! And the monster's attack stance is a lot like Wolzard's....hmmm...
-Awesome training sequence!
-So Does Ahim like Joe? our first shipping couple!
-sword tentacles. hardcore
-five swords!!! I'm not sure that would really work well though...
-Next week is....JASMINE-SAN!!!! BAN-BAN! DOGGIE! yaaaaaaaaay! Can;t wait. Also...Dairanger transformation! I love the costumes for that series. I'm definitly going to love episode 5

[Nate]

I like how Luka just assumes every Sentai had a dragon. And for whatever reason I keep cracking up every time I see Gokai-oh slump down when everyone is bored with it and leaves.

So looks like not EVERY episode is going to be "Gain power of a previous Sentai." Which is good, because then the show would get a little predictable. Also, Joe sorely, SORELY needed some character development, which this episode gave him. I like him a bit better now (but Don will always be my favorite). Speaking of Don, he was hilarious as GekiViolet.

This episode did, however, change my mind about one thing. I was way into Luka at first but after this episode? With Ahim wiping the frosting off Joe's nose? Luka who? Ahim is definitely the hottest.

But holy crap, five swords, and DAT FINAL WAVE. This episode was freaking INCREDIBLE. Also I guess Navi's gonna be singing the Denjiman theme song every time the Zangyack show up.

[Rocketshipper]

Dairangers had a dragon!!!!

[Nate]

Zyuranger did too. XP And Shinkenger.

Oh also I guess the OreImo radio show had a Kamen Rider vs. Super Sentai thing which was pretty cool.

Oh and speaking of Kamen Rider, OOO! It's a standard for things to get dragged out and misunderstandings to happen when a character could just flat out say stuff and prevent a lot of fighting and whatnot...and OOO continues the tradition with Ankh keeping tight-lipped about the Bird Yummy. He could just explain "Hey I don't know what's going on either" but nope he has to be all anti-social and whatnot. Ah well, at least Date and Eiji are getting along good, which is fine by me because the whole "Secondary Rider has to be a total jerk to the main Rider" trope was getting a little old.

[Nate]

Just a brief note to the...two people still watching this. TV Asahi has paused broadcasting until further notice. This means there is a good chance Super Hero Time will not air this week, and thus, no Gokaiger or OOO.