Time for a shiny new Sentai series, and for the first time, we are beginning with a movie that serves as the series' episode 0. This movie aired along side the Kishiryu Sentai Ryusoulger VS Lupinranger VS Patranger film in cinemas. As for this season, it promises bright shiny colors, and power of gem stones. Looks we have competition. Click "read more" and let's take a look.
Analysis
The episode begins by showing off a planet called Crystalia. Which is very shiny.
This is the classic fairy tale backstory. A once peaceful and happy kingdom is attacked by evil invaders and no one saw it coming. In this case, the invaders are called the Yodom Army.
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| This villain is half face make-up half mask. How retro. |
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| Mabushiina |
The king of Crystalia, Oladdin (also translated as Oradin), tells his daughter, Princess Mabushiina, that if anything happens to him then she needs to go to Earth because the shining warriors there will help her fight and Earth is the Yodom Army's next target. You'd think by now that Earth would be known as a difficult planet to conquer. The Yodom Army then enters the throne room and declares that everything sparkly will be absorbed into Darkness in the name of Emperor Yodom. So the main villain named his army after himself and hates sparkles. What an ego emo.
King Oladdin challenges the invaders and actually puts up a good fight, defeating the foot soldiers in the room and brings the 3 faced monster down. However, before the king can give the finishing blow, a new villain joins in and knocks down the King.
Garuza, the younger brother of the king and the reason behind the invasion. He deals a few heavy blows to King Oladdin which knocks him out and leads to his capture. Crystalia has fallen. Princess Mabushiina is panicking over the thought of having to fight Yodom, but then a bright light reveals hope.
Five jewels, the Kiramei Stones. Back to the basic 5, Red, Blue, Yellow, Green, Pink. With their push, Mabushiina heads to Earth to seek help in the fight. Now, a title in space plays.
Cutting away, we meet a kid in school who loves to draw and is always drifting off in his own world named Atsuta. Wanna bet what role he is going to play? Girls at his school love to make fun of and tease him.
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| Main character hair alert |
One of the mean girls in Atsuta's class, named Kakihara, ordered him to draw her. This reveals an artistic thing that Atsuta does; after he gets a mental image of something to draw, he gets up and screams.
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| Smile for the camera |
Elsewhere, a small group of people found the landing sight of Mabushiina.
Mabushiina finds herself waking up inside a giant palm tree shaped sky scraper building next to a man named Hakataminami Muryou.
I'll admit, the building thing is kinda cool. Although, the Muryou guy is kinda creepy.
This is good news for the princess because Hakataminami is a friend of the Crystalia king and he has set up defenses for the upcoming Yodom invasion. But, more importantly, his company, besides being obsessed Hawaii, seems like they will be the one to provide the rangers with their arsenal.
Changers, or morphers appear to be discs with wrist straps. Wow, that does not look like a fun toy at all.
Now the hunt for the rangers begins. Mabushiina awakens the 5 jewels and they all come to life with different personalities. Each gem needs to find a partner that has a similar personality to them.
This is a little much.
What follows are a series of events that the jewels are impressed with. Basically, the gathering of rangers.
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| Warrior of Speed - Sena Hayami |
She is a track runner. The green jewel was impressed with her speed.
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| A true swordsman - Shiguru Oshikiri |
Don't be too impressed, this was a movie set. The blue gem doesn't seem to understand acting. But, the sword skill is real.
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| A master marksman - Tametomo Imizu |
A pro gamer who excels at a third person shooter called "Spark of Bullet". The yellow jewel didn't care it was only a game. He used a PS4 controller. My new favorite yellow ranger.
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| A skillful doctor - Sayo Oharu |
A doctor, that's actually a very useful skill to have on a team. The pink jewel and Sayo instantly loved each other.
Red has to wait for now because the red jewel has not found a partner. As if we don't know who it will be but is still busy drawing. No explanation as to how the princess came across these 4 people. I wonder if the jewels based their decision on the colors everyone was wearing.
Back at the big palm tree base, the 4 chosen warriors gather for the first time.
Almost the typical stereotypes. Tough guy blue, laid-back guy yellow, and calm, smart, and cute pink. But, only the second female green in the core team so, it is too soon call them a stereotype. Even though it is the typical cheerful girly girl. However, past seasons have proven that a stereotype intro can lead to deep character development so, we will see.
Little time for introductions though, the Yodom army has aready arrived. The 4 Kiramagers encounter the foot soldiers in an underground parking lot where we learn their name, Bechats. Don't bother trying to look up the meaning of that name.
Cheap looking suits with metal back scratchers as weapons. You can see the zippers on the back of them.
This first fight is a bit of a panic as the 4 of them are still inexperienced in battle. Hakataminami tells them to henshin with their changers, but takes a hit in the back of the head and passes out. And the blow was not at all convincing.
The princess loses hope, but the 4 Kiramagers encourage her to not give up. All 4 of them are ready to fight and give it their all. Not bad introduction. Although they were really quick to accept all of this. Now, its henshin time!
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| Touch screen buttons. About time |
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| The disc spins. 0.0 |
Not bad. Very shiny.
Now for the first ranger battle. Traditionally, this is the battle to show off the base weapons and make the rangers look strong. This time around, the battle includes extra glitter and sparkles.
The weapons are just a sword and hand gun.
These guns appear to be those disc shooters. I had one as a kid, they always got clogged.
The Kiramagers win this fight and the old man, Hakataminami is not hurt at all. Turns out, this whole battle was just a simulation created by one his company's machines.
Wow, old man is kind of a jerk.
The old man gets a headbutt from the princess, but everything is cool now. With that, the team is almost complete and everyone is optimistic. However, the red jewel is still looking for his partner.
Speaking of which, we cut back to the high school where Atsuta has finally finished his drawing, several hours after school ended.
Needless to say, Kakihara was not happy.
More importantly, we get to see what Atsuta's original drawing was. (The drawing he was working on before Kakihara.) It was actually Garuza. Foreshadow?
This served as a nice transition to reveal Garuza has a new mask and rank of Demonic General of the Yodomheim. Wakka would not approve.
Yup, now that's a villain look.
The movie ends on a cliffhanger to promote the main series and a promise that the Red Ranger will be found.
Say what you want about Power Rangers, but at least we let our female rangers have pants.
Couldn't end the film without making sure every Ranger got shown.
Final Thoughts
This film was a pretty good idea to indroduce a series. Normally, these half an hour Sentai films are below avarage. However, this was basically just an introduction episode but with a higher budget and a slightly longer run-time which went a long way. The movie did everything it needed to do, introducing the villains and heroes as well as the setting. Most importantly, one does not need to see the film to be able to follow the season Kiramager. As far as my impression of the series, it is hard to say. If there is one issue I had with the movie, besides the weapons being kind of lame, it would be that non of the rangers really had any development behond an introduction. All the development went to the supporting characters and villains. However, the rangers have a whole season ahead to develop so, I'll let that slide. 4/5
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