A decade can be a long time, so much can happen to a person in that time, trends all of sudden die out with no warning, fashion changes, and new media is released every year to a both a new and od audience. But even in 10 years, some things never really go away. Even when a toku ends, that's not the end of the adventures of the character's whose journey we had been on for maybe a few weeks, months, or even a whole year. Sentai and by extension rider are no strangers to the concept, especially now a days. You can expect the previous years heroes to show in a crossover with the current group and they may get cameo's down the line. But that is sort of it, actor's move on to bigger and better things or move out of acting entirely making full team reunions seem almost unlikely, but sometimes a miracle can happen. In August of 2013, the first sentai 10 year special was released celebrating Ninpu Sentai Hurricaneger's 10th anniversary, reuniting the original team fully for the first time in nearly 9 years after their appearence in the Abaranger vs Hurricanger movie. 2 more 10 year anniversary films would follow Hurricaneger's. In 2015, the treatment was given to Dekaranger and in 2018 the same was done for Go-onger. And as we edged closer and closer to the new decade, it was soon becoming gokaiger's 10th anniversary (I will give people a bit of time to take in the fact that Gokaiger is now 10 years old at this point......................... You've gotten back up from fainting, good moving on.)
While the 2010's in terms of Sentai are... rather divisive amongst people. Gokaiger remained a steadfast fan favorite, for many english viewer's it was their first sentai. It's cast is still one of the best the series has ever done and that extends to the gimmick of the ranger keys and their utilization in the show. Yes by all accounts its fan service the show, but its the loving kind of fanservice, the kind that feels like everyone involved loved what they were doing and had a blast with it. But naturally their was some doubt about the potential of the movie happening. The big one being whether Yuki Yamada, Joe Gibken's actor would be able to reprise his role seeing as his career in acting had taken off big time in the past couple of years (To put in perspective what his resume looks like the past year, he has landed 5 lead role's on tv one of which is a movie and just this year was cast in Tokyo Revengers which sees him nominated for best supporting actor by Nikkan sports film awards and 46th Hochi Film awards.) But people's finally got their answer in June of this year where it was revealed that Gokaiger was getting a 10 year film. Marking the first time in 5 years the gokai galleon crew has appeared together on screen since the previous anniversary of Zyouhger. As another piece of sentai's 45th anniversary. Does 10 Gokaiger live up to expectations. Or is it finally time to set the ship out for its long awaited funeral.
On earth, the people of Japan are celebrating a new kind of sport, the super sentai Derby Colosseum. Using the ranger Key's of all of the previous sentai's plus some aquired technology from dead pirates, it has allowed the japanese goverment to offer fans of the icons the ability to bet on who would win in a fight between certain matchups from ninjas to speedsters. The only keys missing are that of the Gokaigers. While Gai is on board with it since he helped set up the project, he soon learns that the rest of the Gokaigers have split up for some reason. Just as that happens, a now eyepatch wearing Marvelous shows up on earth and is not to pleased about what the country has done to their heroes and sets out to put an end to it. But what of the other gokaigers (sans Don who is the first one we see after the credits.) Has the crew truly broken up and is their truly a need to destroy this totally not evil in any way plan that benefits all of humanity.
Okay, no need to panic but our minister of defense... defense minister is secretly evil and trying to take over the universe... don't panic, don't panic its not a new thing of corrupt officals
Yeah spoiler that is the plan by the villains and let's get this out of the way. The setup is a bit contrived, while the idea of the derby does give a few interesting matchups the idea that all 43 teams (not counting the gokaigers or zenkaigers) would be so willing to just give up their power even with the claim they would get them back on emergency notice. But considering the boy scout that Gai is it is almost believeable since we have seen him do in zyouhger. Beside in terms of post show appearences, 10 gokaiger doesn't really shake it up. One or more Gokaigers will be acting like a jerk and have some kind of goal, this will cause them to butt heads with someone else before they reveal their hands and turn it on the villains. It's been the thing since taisen and they did it again for Gokaiger vs go-buster and do it to a lesser degree in their appearance in zyouhger. But honestly that doesn't bother me here because unlike Taisen which felt like a whole bunch of 5d chess bullshit compication that was thier for epic sake and not common sense sake, it does initially come off as a grey on who is the right one in the situation of the what should happen to derby, unless you haven't watched anything like this tournament and you likely have see the "twist" come through.
Besides, you didn't come to 10 gokaiger for some evolution of story here. You came here for two things. The gokaigers being awesome and a whole treasure trove of fanservice from the tip of the iceberg, to the deep, dark blue underbelly of the iceberg, which this special does to 200%. The gokaiger's still remain to have some of the best chemistry amongst modern sentai team and it still holds true all these years after. While they are not together as a full team for most of it. they end up paired in duo's with Gai and Don bringing early comedy and exposition on what has happened since zyouhger. Marvelous shows up to initiate conflict and is joined by Ahim to remind you they arguably have the best dynamic of the series. Though sadly both Luka and Joe do get the short end of the stick here, with Luka bringing in Marvelous as a rather unbelievable bounty hunter and showing up near the end in a rather nice reference to Ui at the end, While Joe get's the most badass return and henshin sequence against a copy Akaranger, his contribution is rather minimal compared to the rest of the team. But that badass return is just what the film is about. To show the Gokaigers being awesome and goofy at the same time. And in this case, everyone is able to easily fit back into their roles like a favorite glove.
10 years later, they still look as great and showy as ever. (Hang on, why does it look like Kazuki Shimizu hasn't aged, was this taken this year or is this from the past, could he be immortal.)
Alongside that is another Gokaiger staple returning, a whole swath of Fan service and nods, as Naruhisa digs up trove of call backs and references to the history of the franchise. From a cameo of Takamichi from Kiramager, To some of the more obscure, like Mio and Kagura's child actor's cameoing now as teenagers in respective colors, to of all things, the developer of the derby system being that kid that stole Marvelous's Mobirate and transformed into shinken red, yeah the cuts can be that deep, also the plot point of Navi being left behind is also brought up but they are primarily their. But their is of course the gokai changes of teams of zyouhger-kiramager, some may be dissapointed by the fact it is only in one scene and it is only the red's of all the teams, but I think it is fine, the gokai changes while a big draw were not the only one as its character interactions and fan service had been the draw. 10 gokaiger does fit a whole lot into its hour long time span, almost to the detriment of certain elements.
Which leads us to the villains which having an interesting concept don't do much. The Bakut pirates, a trio of space pirates who come to earth to abuse the power's of previous sentai who also team up with Japan's minister of Defense who also wants to use the power's to fuel an army to invade the planet. While the Bakut pirates design is still great, they are one note personality wise (to the point of no personality honestly.) That the best part of the lineup is Oren from Kamen rider gaim (Metal Yoshida) jumping around as the groups bruiser going shirtless and looking like a blue version of Drax the destroyer. Even the most interesting part of the ensemble the minister of defense who get's no name, is quickly dealt with Niwano (the kid I mentioned whose all grown up now) with a straight punch to the face and their is no fallout with him, no news of his arrest or being removed from office for his association with a pirate crew, he could've easily just been anyone else and it wouldn't of matter.
As for Aesthetics, the big thing is the new Gokai Cross armor. Made from the soul of the Gokai Galleon after its... 3rd destruction, that grants each of the base 5 gokaigers with a piece of armor representative of their mech's location on Gokai-oh. So Marvelous get's a chestplate resembling the galleon, Don and Joe get a gun arm and multi sword arm respectively, while Luka and Ahim get leg cannons to pulverize the girl villain (I know I can look up her name, but I will likely forget them soon after. With marvelous combing the armor together for a full battelizer. Yeah, it is a bit bulky, it looks a little silly. But hey, at least here it is actually used to take out the big bads unlike a certain series where it just takes out some mooks and gets one shot by the big bad... hint, hint, Decade, bad. Even after all these years, Gokaiger and by extension sentai showing Rider how to do anniversary and introducing a new power up.
Gokai Red doing his best Gokaioh cosplay since the ship is out of for repairs
CONCLUSION
10 Gokaiger is not only a celebration of what made gokaiger great, but also serves as fan service treat for the franchises 45th anniversary. While their are some story elements I would enjoy to have actually been fleshed off. But even after all of these years, Gokaiger continues to be one of the most fun in sentai after all of these years and will still likely entertain for years to come. Now back to less fun things, like for example, super hero Taisen
FINAL GRADE:A
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