The 2010's for sentai were definitely not the highest points. After a promising beginning things slipped rather noticebly in the later half, reception about show's were a lot more divisive in comparison to past years and probably the bigger thing for Toei was merchandise sales that failed to be even considered successful. I am not going to go into reasons because one I am a fan and not an analyst, leave that to people who want to give an explanation and know what they are talking about, I don't know if it is because Rider and Ultraman came back big this decade, franchise fatigue for a 46 year old series that has not had a break since the late 70's or if it is somehow the toy's faults for not being good. I don't know that stuff, I care mostly about the quality of the show so let's go back to the beginning of 2010, and boy did that season not have the best job. Goseiger had the monumental task of following up Samurai Sentai Shinkenger, one of it not the most beloved entry in the franchise, even close to a decade after it released it is still one of the most popular season's the franchise has done. And as stated with Gaim, following up beloved entries are a lot harder do to expectations..
Unsurprisingly upon release Goseiger was not looked at too fondly, with many calling the season bland, boring and average. It didn't help that the season that immediately followed Goseiger was Gokaiger, another extremely popular entry in the franchise, meaning that Goseiger had one of the worst placements overall meaning its supposed mediocrity made it just the season that came after Shinkenger and came after Gokaiger. But with most things toku time has been a bit kinder, thanks in part to people not liking what was currently airing (Also the show's adaption Megaforce being rather not popular.) Gave the show new life as people came back to have a new enjoyment of this season. Is it soaring or flailing about.
SYNOPSIS
Angel's they live amongst us. The Gosei Angels from the Gosei World have been protecting the planet with their Gosei Power. (God the creator of this stuff is so vain naming everything after himself, we sure this guy ain't YHWH.) Anyway this protection is put in danger with an army of aliens, The Warstar invade the planet and destroy the angel's connection to the human world, The Tower of Heaven. Hope seems lost (I am just guessing that other sentai's would not be available to stop this but hey maybe they are all busy with something.) But a group of rookie angels were on earth just as the tower fell and are the only group capable of standing against the Warstar. From the Skick Tribe we have childhood friends Alata and Eri. Landick tribe siblings Agri and Moune, and finally the sole Seaick tribe representative Hyde. While stuck on earth there homebase is the Amachi's homebase which has a direct link to Gosei World (How he had it, I have no idea.) in Datas.
Now that is not the entire plot here, the Warstar are only the main villains for the first 16 episodes, after that the new villain become the Yuumajuu, pollutant based monsters bent on destroying the planet through pollution where we get our sixth ranger in Gosei Knight, a literal eco-warrior bent on protecting the planet from everyone. But they are not the last villains the group faces as a third faction pops up after the Yuumanjuu are dealt with the Mantrintis, an empire of robots who want to make the entire world robotic. Now it would seem that all of these villains have no conneciton but they do in the form of Buredoran and his Bibi's who keeps popping up. Plot wise despite the changing staus quo, it is fairly basic sentai fair, a rather back to basics approach which despite the rangers angelic background never really feels like it comes foward to greatly into the story, if it were not for them using these abilities I would think they were just people recruited to use these gifts.
CHARACTERS
The main team, in all their plain white bread goodness
As leaders go, Alata is not the worse one, but at the same time he doesn't really elevate the show, he is your standard Red Leader's at the time, hot blooded, thinking on the positive side. It can get grating after a bit, especially a lot of their rookie feeling too, but I think something that doesn't help with the feeling of standard is that he has a real lack of focus, after the first arc and his climatic fight with the Warstar's enforcer Dereputa, he doesn't get much in focus, I mean he does have some as the group's unofficial leader, but in terms of episodes focused on him, I can only really count a two-parter when he is sent into the past and has to get the group before their bonds to work together. Not a bad leader for the group, just that their have been better.
And honestly sans one character, that is the best way to describe the majority of the goseigers, they are fine but nothing particularly special, Eri is the standard girly girl of the group who stands as the group's heart, I did enjoy the episode where she befriended one of the mantrintis, even if it was an enemy trap, I always enjoyed those kind of stories. Also despite being the more feminine of the two girl's she is weirdly the person who is less likely to clean up her messes, for some reason.
Agri also doesn't move on beyond the boisterous big guy of the group, never backing down from any challenge and being much more hot blooded to Alata. He gets something of a rivalry with the second villain groups enforcer, but it doesn't have as much as Alata vs Dereputa since it comes up not particularly of anything. something that probably doesn't help with somewhat the issue of some characters not getting much is that many of the characters share the focus, with Agri sharing it with his sister.
Said sister Moune is probably the least developed overall, she's the youngest out to prove herself, often has issues with other's and probably has the least amount of episodes soley to herself, heck she probably has more episodes dedicated with other people compared to everyone else, I can only really remember a singular episode that was solely her in the form of one involving cheerleading where she uses her cheerleading skills to beat the monster, and that is within the first arc, after that it is mostly just sharing it like the episode where she and Eri have issues, getting stuck with hyde in an white room, or the couple between her and her brother. It doesn't help that I found her personality not the best.
Despite the averageness of the cast, one member was able to rise to be the best character, Hyde has arguably the best focus episodes throughout, a much more interesting dynamic and backstory in regards to how his partner died before the beginning of the season during the War Star's inital invasion. It also helps his much calmer, cooler nature doesn't lead to many instances of annoyance, but even then we can see a growth as a person in regards to becoming a protector and relaxing a bit in terms of his seriousness. It isn't by all accounts the most original character for this franchise but it is one that is well done.
Gosei Knight is sort of a weird character, cause on first look you would think he is like Ninjaman or Signalman, an ally to the rangers who helps from time to time but he is the sixth for the season. And as far as characters go, their is a lot that could have been done better. I like that he is a much more experienced member to contrast the other's and inital has no desire to care about humans and needs the rangers to explain how the people also live on the planet even though they do dumb things. Making him come off like a captain planet that decided to just start killing people to end the pollution crisis. A big problem is that he more often than not just shows up to help, we do get plenty of backstory but his interaction besides being a mentor figure for the goseigers feels like he shows up when needed. And stop me if you've heard this arc of trying to understand human emotions as robot can't understand that or laughter. I wouldn't say he is one of the worst sixth (Can't say, I have run into a bad sixth yet in watching.) But he is not great either, being the weakest of the group.
Additional side characters include the Amachi family, Nozumu is not going to change your mind on child actors in all honesty, but he does offer a nice balance to his zanier friends antics and eccentricities including his own father. And the same can be said for the father, if you are not a fan of comedy relief then Shuichiro is not going to convert you with his bumbling dad antics. Both are not the best but I wouldn't say they were the worst.
Datas... is fine, I think my biggest gripe with him is his voice, it is just a bit too grating after a bit and it's design is, I don't want to be too mean about but he looks like he is out of one of the last two metal hero series, in that he gets a cool form to 'balance' it out but it just feels like whiplash. And as far as mentor's goes, master Header is fine in giving them information when needed, though he is lacking in much of character. Though I have to give props as he is one of the few mentor's to get out and help, it results in the group losing contact with him, but that takes a lot to do.
Onto our villains, are first group is the Warstar led by Moth Drekk, Dereputa and Buredoron of the comet (Also if you have some understanding of japanese language then you probably have guessed the naming scheme) As a villain, they are probably the most threatening since they were able to disconnect the rangers from their home, but beside that, they are kind of forgettable, Moth Drekk is notably a lot calmer a leader than what you would expect, never getting to angry and showing respect to many of his soldiers even when they die, but personality wise he is quite bland all things consider. That also goes for Dereputa, being Alata's main rival for the first half he does get some good fights and I feel helps with Alata's early growth but besides that he is a standard general for the forces of evil. And as for Buredoron well we will talk about him later.
The Mehstar army
After them is the Yuumajuu, demonic cryptids released with a past with the gosei angels, which you would think would have bigger implication, but despite that they are probably the worst villain group in the show. Really much of the plan's feel, done before, like this part of the season was just running through a whole bunch of human's suck for how they treat the planet stuff. It doesn't really help that neither Makuin or Kinggon do much to differentiate themselves from their predecessors. Makuin is a lot more jovial about things which to some can come off as too lax and Kinggon just comes off as a dumber Dereputa. Even them putting one over Buredoran, who was always a Yuumanjuu but trust me this goes deeper, feels less earned since we never saw them as more than kind of morons, in the same way that Mangetsu's twist of actually being super smart not amounting to much.
Literal Garbage monsters
The final group is the Mantrintis, the robots of the villains do feel a step about the others in my opinion. With the leader Robogog feeling much different from either Moth Drekk or Makuin, being much more disdainful of the failures and treating his creations as useless. He is a much more hate-abel antagonist compared to the previous ones. Metal alice herself probably is the closest that villains get as a villain, going from the abused assistant to come to understand the human emotion (Even if it does bite her in the butt at the end.) Despite that, they are still not what I would considered villain's above average. Mostly stemming from just a lack of interesting personalities, while I did like them it was more a breath of fresh air after the yuumanjuu left a bad taste. Though I would say that metal alice would be my favorite villain for her growth, but that would be leaving out the real star of Buredoran, or as he is really called Brajira.
Our Wannabe robot overlords
Brajira easily takes the cake as the best thing about Goseiger, a conniving, deranged sociopath who play's the long game, helping (Both willing and unwilling.) to fulfil his plan. His reveal as true main antagonist is easily the master stroke of the entire series and goes on to be arguably one of the best, I would say that but despite an interesting savior destroyer complex, he does spend a good chunk of the season as background, slowly working at his plan and even get's usurped for a bit when Robogog revives him as a robotic slave. But some credit has got to be given in be able to get your memories back when you have amnesia. Their may be better manipulators down the road but just for what Brajira is through out, a complete sociopathic lying wannabe god, he goes down as one of the bests.
And lastly the God behind it all
AESTHETICS
I'm sort of mixed on the the design this season. The goseiger's suit's are half good, I like the regal design on the chest's and the use of gold, helmet's maybe a little bit big and I wish that their was a better way of showing each ranger's respective animal besides them being on the side. But the bigger issue is in how the lower half s entirely white, I get the angel motif, but it ends up being a rather notable imbalance of color, Being too much white and not enough of the primary color. Their not bad but it feels a bit under-designed. Gosei knight does look better in my opinion, the balance of black and silver the much more armored design denotes the knight in the name and also the face on the chest shows the ability to morph into zord form.
The Goseigers ready for combat... also There is their Gosei Knight
Speaking of the zords. notably the zords of the season are rather headers, they attach to vehicles and copy them to create the zords the heroes use, or are just used in header forms as part of the different form. Honestly I really do love this season's main mech design. yeah their are obvious points where new headers are suppose to go. But it is so cool looking, the sword, the wings, the composition on it. Yeah it gets the standard put all header's on ultra combination which, gonna be honest doesn't look all that great. But just the main overall design, and even the brother's combination like Seaick, look cool as all hell.
Additional add-ons sold seperately
Gosei Grand would've recieved similar praise, but their is a very small itty bitty problem that is that head. That, that is a head of something way smaller, it looks disproportionate to the mech itself and really detracts from the overall design which does has a solid color scheme, but that head detracts so much from it. And in terms of others, Datas mecha form is fine, just him bigger and looking cool, not helping the final two metal heroes comparison in the slightest. And finally Gosei Ultimate, a flying ship that can turn into a robot. It sort of does Gosei Grand a bit better with better proportions and I like the twin sword becoming a bow thing,it is good but I do think Gosei Great beats it out.
Who you callin pinhead?
The morpher's fine, a tiki face card reader. It is unique amongst changers but it is mostly window dressing, as the main means of transformation, the cards are mostly fine, but nothing truly stands out art wise, just an image of what it does, and yeah that is a good chunk of cards and these are meant for a serious use rather fun, but I wouldn't say these things ignite much in terms of their fine. We get the standard weapon line, a sword (Though this is a fencing sword which is unique mostly.) Axe, claw, and ranged weapons. They also have blasters which brings in the other gimmick of the season, the headers, alongside being used to summon the mechs, they can be attached to the blasters for unique shots. I guess if their was an issue with the headers, it is that the brothers are introduced rather quickly, mostly in the first arc which leaves very little, I guess they do make some use out of it, but it feels overwhelming.
Also the group gets a super mode that is a bit lackluster, I'm not fond of the gumball sword they use and the golden chestplate that has their respective animal looks more gaudy than cool, and nothing is still done with the bottom half besides golden rings around the boots.
If their is one thing that is consistently amazing, its the theme song, it is one of the best themes songs for sentai I have heard, its majestic, it rocks through most of it, even in the most mediocre or bad episode it was always a highlight to listen to this. Speaking of episodes.
EPISODES
Favorite: Episode 10, something I didn't bring up was that their was initally a 6th ranger amongst them, A partner for Hyde that died the day the warstar's invaded, it is something that I feel adds more layers, escpecially since it seems that everyone has a ranger form, while it isn't much, but the fact the monster is the one that killed Magis does add to Hyde's character that is not something the others have.
Least favorite: Episode 17, you know I do think the Yuumanjuu would've had a interesting start, a new threat to change the staus quo, a connection to them, the reveal that Buredoran is still alive, even if the personalities are well developed for our new villains. But it does have the issue that it does start Gosei Knights time as a deus ex machina to show up when things are not going well rather than being a character.
Favorite; Episode 41, Monster's being more friendly is something I enjoy, this may not be one of the better one's but I do think this one in that the villain doing it specifcally does work for here in a unique way (Can't say if this is unique for others, at the time I am writing this, this was sentai #7 I watched.)
I would have more but honestly, nothing stood out as too bad or memorable outside of that.
CONCLUSION
Goseiger is a perfect example of going back to basics, and that is also probably its biggest weakness. Nothing about it is truly stand out despite being a much simpler season, none of the villains are too memorable besides Buredoran, The rangers sans Hyde are the deepest or get much in terms of development. If their was an example of playing very safe, it probably wouldn't be dino season #50, it probably would be this season. That said their is something to the simplicity, Again Buredoran is a great villain, their is some good mech design with Gosei Great even if others fall flat. Some of the episodes while feeling a bit been their done that are well done. Its not going to blow people away, what you see is what you get from goseiger and honestly, it is perfectly fine, a bit bland but I don't feel like I wasted time.
FINAL GRADE: C
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