As the 2000's drew to a close, super sentai was seemingly about to enter a period they had not seen since the early 90's. By the end of 2009, the last episode of Power rangers RPM aired on Saturday morning. At the time it was the final season of the show. As Disney really had no interest in the franchise, with its final two seasons being made more out of an obligation rather than because they wanted it made. After this, it seemed like Power rangers was going to be a rerun franchise, or disney would try to touch up shows like they attempted with that revision of the original they did. But that meant for the first time since Jetman, Sentai wouldn't be the basis for a season. That being said, I am not going to claim that Shinkenger exists because of this suppose end of power rangers. A part of me believes that it was the case, after all, Disney really didn't care too much about the franchise in the last couple of years they owned it, and again, both Jungle Fury and RPM were made out of an obligation to both Jetix Europe and Bandai because of contracts, heck after Operation Overdrive failed, they probably would've ended things their if it weren't for that, so maybe executives took the hints and opted to make something steeped in japanese culture. Of course it wasn't the end, Saban bought back the rights to power rangers from disney, and for better or worse, brought the franchise back from obscurity, by adapting the most difficult sentai that one could imagine for a western market... in 6 months.
But this is not a review about Samurai, this is about Samurai Sentai Shinkenger which... do I really need to say anything here, I mean this is one of the most beloved entries in the franchise, your hard press to find someone who doesn't think the season is good. It still is quite popular, when the heisei era came to the end and Toei was doing popularity polls for peoples favorite seasons, Shinkenger was ranked number one beating out the likes of Gaoranger and Gokaiger. Whenever people ask where to start or what to watch, the first reccomendation always seems to be this season if it hasn't been watched. Kind of feels like a dead horse being beaten to say that yep its good go watch it... But why not talk about what makes this such a good season.
SYNOPSIS
The Shiba clan and its retainer families has spent generations fighting the Gedoshu, evil spirits bent on the flooding the world in the sanzu river. Currently their fight has seen bit of peace with the sacrifice of its previous head, who with his dying breath sealed the Gedoshu's Leader Dokoku. In the present, the 18th and current head of the Shiba family Takeru, has been waging a one-man war against their foot soldiers, unwilling to call in the next generation of warriors to aid him. But as stronger Gedoshu being to show up, his retainer Jii chooses to call them into action. Amongst them is Ryunosuke Ikenami, a kabuki actor whose upbringing has made him quite dramatic, Mako Shiraishi, a kindergarten teacher who becomes the den mother (To the horror of everyone's stomach.) Chiaki Tani, a slacker who's put off his trainer and has no real desire to deal with all this samurai nonsense. And finally Kotoha Hanaori, a country girl who is stepping into her ill sisters role as Takeru's vassal. Later the group is joined by Takeru's childhood friend and sushi maker Genta Umemori who made his own power set just to help him.
Shinkenger is definitely cut from the cloth of many series from around it, seting up plot points that slowly build over the series, but what defines shinkenger is arguably one of the most well developed cast in the franchises history, some series may have a character who gets the shaft but this is one of those special seasons where everyone feels like a different person by the end of it... and Genta but let's get to him.
CHARACTERS
Of the main 6, Genta gets the least development, though that is more that unlike the rest of the cast, he knows what he wants to do and has attained it by the end of his introduction, being able to help Takeru fight the Gedoshu. Thanks to his knowledge of Mojikara (The power they draw from.) He makes many of the new mechs the team gets and helps to build new weapons. His focus episodes are about him trying to be accepted, whether it is with Ryunosuke or a sushi critic, even with his curry. His energy, is probably going to grate on people but they do know when to reel it in when its necessary, He is really good throughout the season, but when compared to the other 5, his lack of development does put him at the bottom, not that is a bad thing, he is probably still one of the better 6th's.
Ryunosuke starts the show as someone very dedicated to the samurai code, training whenever he can and when he feels that he has done something to offend his lord seeks punishment. Often being critical of Chiaki's more loose and rebellious nature causes some early strife. I was... not fond, found him a bit too overbearing and the whole lord stuff aggravating, but this is one of those characters that got better as he developed, learning to loosen up a bit and not be as much a takeru fanboy helps to make him a lot more enjoyable, stuff like him accepting his lord fighting or getting along with Chiaki when they get glued together was some of the best episodes for me. Though I do have an issue, early he has an episode where he takes on a pupil and learns that anyone can be a samurai. only to later get another episode where he learns to accept Genta as a samurai.
Chiaki starts the show as kind of bratty, slacking on his training and often butting heads with the others not named Kotoha or Mako. What I like about the opening parts of the series is about him growing as a samurai becoming better with his episodes. After his growth as a samurai is complete, it is more about showing his inventiveness in combat, something I do like with the other rangers is how the family plays into one episode for the characters, and in his case it serves as the cap for Chiaki, to keep getting better to always match against others.
Mako's character is about being the big sister to either the others, or a victim or victims of the week, she also has one of the running gags that she can't cook to save her life, in the same way of Genta, she doesn't have the most noticable growth, more that she is their to lend a shoulder to the others like offering Takeru advice from time to time. What I do like is that I feel she does have the best parent episode, she knows what this life could do to her, and when she has the chance to get out she chooses to continue fighting in order to protect the world.
Kotoha starts the season lacking in confidence, seeing as how unlike the rest, she is just the replacement, their to fill the space her sick sister couldn't. Despite her status of the youngest, often she fnds herself pairing up with other characters for focus but we see her growth from the shy, meek girl who didn't believe she could stand with the rest to being able to call herself Shinken Yellow. I really do like the interaction, especially Takeru's once we learn about his secret.
Which of course leaves us with the lord of the house. Takeru starts off cold, wanting to not drag anyone into this conflict and even telling Kotoha that if she can't stand then just leave. Despite that initally cold approach, we see signs of weakness and humanity, from Jii bringing up his childhood fears, to coming to care about his vassals. Despite that their is sort of this feeling that he still eels distant from his comrades, a need to rush into battle alone without help from others, rushing off to fight Juzo on his own but it makes sense at the time, since he makes clear he only wants to fight him. That is his own arc, becoming willing to accept help from others and that he is anything of merit.
His status as nothing more than a decoy, a shadow to hide the truth leaves him ultimately lost, mission complete with nothing to do leads him to a death match with Juzo, and I really like how Kaoru is handled in this series, with the writer going out of her way to make her unlikable, between her vasal being an ass, the way the kuroko just finishes her morphing by giving her her blade. Its evokes the feeling of the others of how ultimately this is not their lord, or lady. Only as we do learn more about her, she is still cold, but understanding and willing to shutting Tanba up when he is being a dick. Though the whole adopting Takeru thing is... weird, I get that they are probably backed by the government since they are the sentai authroized by providence, But still she is still younger and an odd way to get around him not being a shiba.
Jii definetely was not the most stand out, but he still offered help and support to the team when they needed it, I like that we also see his life outside of the team and how difficult it is to coordinate the Kuroko, he definetely has his personal moments and I did like how he just tried to get Genta to get over his fear was actually pretty funny. Also Daigoyou was decent as a team pet, carrying the same energy as Genta which may be too much for some but I didn't mind it.
The villains... are good, not great but good in my opinion. Dokoku doesn't really do much outside of a few episodes, spending most of his time drinking sake and listening to music to quell headaches. It does get a good reason, he is powerful, very powerful but dries up quite quickly unlike his fellow Gedoshu. Its a good reason for the trope of the orcus on his throne but that does mean he is often not pushing the plot rather it is the generals and allies doing the work.
Speaking of them, Shitari is the primary planner, sending Gedoshu up to fill the sanzu river with despair. He is one of the better old guard strategist as far as they go. Dayu has her moments of plots but she spends most of the season playing her music to quell Dokoku. The series does give her a backstory as a yandere, but it mostly doesn't matter since she serves as the dark chick.
Juzo's take on the blood knight rival to our main hero is actual interesting, we don't really know what side he is on as he sometimes help and often fights with the rangers. personality wise he isn't that deep, a blood knight who wants to eternally fight with a powerful foe, that leads him to try and get Takeru to fall with him, which he almost does near the end. But where Juzo ultimately has no one, we see that Takeru does have people to pull him back and show's that he is not alone anymore. I also like that when he learns about the truth of his families death, he didn't really care, just wanting to live in the moment and fufill his blood lust, showing how far a human could fall.
Akumaro does bring a bit of a darker turn for the season, with far more complex plans compared to Shitari, being a bit more polite compared to how mean the other leaders could be. Hiding a quite disturbed mind bent on destroying everything even the gedoshu, his time when he was the main villain was some of the most interesting things the villains were doing. Its issue is that the villain when compared to the heroes are a lot more interesting than the villains who are more straight foward than anything else, not bad but they are not the most interesting part of this show.
AESTHETICS
Shinkengers main suit are really something good, the kimono look of the upper body is really nice and the choice of black for the pants works really well for these suits. I also like the weapons used and the morpher itself, unique for what it is and multi functional in casting spells. And I do like most of the weapons taht we see use and the super form is just as good. The addition of white works well with each of the rangers, even gold looks good with it and the... dino hyper form looks good on red, gold and green... but really a dino... I guess why they made it a shark in Power rangers. I do really like the changer, being something that is multi-use and unique for its time.
Speaking of the mechs, they are fine. I do like the main mech, even if it is a bit bulkier its samurai aesthetic helps it. That being said Shinken Gold's mech isn't very good, its so rotund and has such a weird mechanic that just isn't very good. And it really is an issue of later suits that they are overly bulky and cluttered as we get to the ultimate transformation just... ugh, it's not great and its a shame because the origami motif is interesting just not the best used.
Gedoshu designs are really good across the board, Really wouldn't call anything bad with the favorites being Juzo, Hyakuyappa. Just good demon design that doesn't feel like it wants to mix it with other things.
EPISODES
Favorite: Episode 1, Shinkenger in my opinion has easily one of the best sentai opening episodes, we get a basic idea of each ranger's personality, an okay look at the villain, and decent action. It sets the show up well for what is to come.
Episode 22: The reversal works really well and I just enjoy the interaction between Kotoha and Takeru. Just something funny about him trying to ply the butler.
Episode 27, the focus on the younger samurai is also something that is really funny and how they interact with their fellow rangers, it also shows the development of Chiaki for using his head in certain situations to defeat the MOTW, which is also pretty funny.
Episode 45: The best thing about this episode is how it goes bout making the audience feels about Kaoru, between her rather cold act, Tanba, the way the Kuroko finish her henshin by handing her her blade. It gives you the same feeling the rangers themselves. feel.
CONCLUSION
Shinkenger has its issues, between the mecha and some slighlty weak villains. But that is not what this seasons is about, it is about one of the best, most developed main cast this franchise has ever done, each character has an arc that makes them feel different from how they begin. And it is such a joy to watch with some really great focus and story oriented episodes. I know this is quite the obvious thing, but Shinkenger is absoletuely worth the watch through, as an end to the 2000's sentai, it couldn't have asked for anything better.
FINAL GRADE: S
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