Let’s Watch Wednesdays Week 3 Mahou Sentai Magiranger 7-9

Well, they glossed over the resolution of that episode 6 cliffhanger mighty quickly, didn't they? Nice callback to the seemingly randomly magic spray hand-off, though. They also seem to be an awfully chatty bunch when they fight. I know we're supposed to be seeing character growth in some of these episodes, but I just don't feel we've been given an opportunity to get invested in the characters. At this point they still seem to feel more like archetypes than individuals.

Urara's flip-flopping throughout episode 8 seemed to have little point, but the brutal honesty pay off at the end was fairly amusing. That dance number. Well, I don't even know what to say about that.

I have to admit, Fire Kaiser is pretty awesome though. The different scales of their robot forms is pretty neat, too. I forgot to mention that last time. Overall, I'm still enjoying the show (though not as much as Hurricanger, which I'm also watching for the first time now).

Only watched 7 for now, but I will say I like having Magiking's power removed. Few Super Sentai shows these days give us the opportunity to see the component mecha in action after the first one or two episodes.

Wow, uh, Stage 7 is all over the place.

Before I get negative, I'll start with what I liked. I definitely liked the meat of this episode -- Tsubasa visiting Kai's dream world. I always like that story type. It usually allows a show to explore characters and conflicts in a more impressionistic way. (I once wrote at Teen Titans Animated spec script featuring a very similar plot.) So far these two are the least annoying Magirangers -- so I'm happy to see an episode dedicated to their relationship. For the most part, it worked. I just wish it wasn't so rushed.

Now for the bad. Literally everything else was annoying.

The supply-gathering mission was a complete waste of time, it forced everyone to do something obnoxious, and it distracted from what should have been the episode's A-Story (i.e., the conflict between Kai and Tsubasa). Had we not spent so much time with mindless shenanigans, we could have explored the reasons why Tsubasa and Kai aren't so close. Instead of rushing through the dreamworld stuff, we could have spent some time inside Kai's head, exploring who he is as a character.

I'm really hating both of the girls on this show. After 7 episodes, they're still mindless ciphers. In addition, Makito is an idiot. And Mandora Boy is the most annoying sentai character this side of Gekiranger's evil flying microphone insect thing.

Obviously, Wolzard, Vancuria, and Branken are cool, but the only Magirangers I don't want to exorcise from this show are Tsubasa and Kai. Hopefully, the others can win me over soon or I don't know how much more of this show I can take.


UPDATE:

Just watched Stage 8.

And I can officially say this show hates women. It starts with the girls putting on make up and flying their broom hovercraft to an audition that appears to be taking place in an abandoned Bluth Company housing development.

During said audition, Houka tells the panel that her interests are Homemaking and Flower Arrangement. She then gives the director a lap dance. No, not really, but that's about the level of respect for women this show has. They're all shallow fame whores who lie and cheat to become idols -- and who love to clean the house in their spare time.

And then there's the new spell of the week. A spell only the girls get. One that, I guess, gives everyone the power to perform a perfectly choreographed dance number? And somehow that dancing kills the monster. Whatever. But listen -- if Kai gets an awesome new fire power every other episode, the girls deserve a bit more than an impromptu musical routine-manifestation ability.

Finally, the show ends with Urara serving the boys fresh smoothie drinks, as though she's their fucking maid. Because of course it does.

I know Sentai doesn't have a history of well developed female characters, but come on Magiranger. Get it together.


Other Notes:

So Urara can't see her own future. That's funny cause I swear she saw herself get turned into a statue not two episodes ago. The writers would probably just laugh it off and joke that she was on her period. Because they are the worst.

Wolzard's growth spell is becoming a real problem. It does absolutely nothing to address the classic, "well, why didn't he just cast the growth spell immediately?" question inherent in these situations. I find that lazy.

So, that soccer ball kick finisher is here to stay, huh? Well, I do admit its cooler with a ball of fire than it was as a giant pink soccer ball.

Well I know I'm a little late is already Friday where I'm at so I'll be quick this was more character development this week. Though I am getting used to the idea that major plot point are being reveled in the mech battles. I feel that Stage 9 dropped another hint to who Wolzard (though I know because i watched Power Ranger and have been on the wiki i will not Spoil it until the show does). the big this the show has done has established the character types of each of the siblings by now though I still think green and yellow need more development it is still early in there series heck the 6th ranger hasn't be revealed yet so we have time.

Episode 7 de gozarimasu desu

The last couple days were a little busy, so I just got around to starting this week's episodes this morning de gozarimasu desu. Episode 7 was... okay, I guess de gozarimasu desu? The action was good (although the team's fight banter sucks) and some of the stuff with Kai and Tsubasa (the only likable character so far) was nice, too de gozarimasu desu. But dear god, this show IS de gozarimasu desu. NOT de gozarimasu desu. FUNNY de gozarimasu desu. Everything it attempts to pass off as humor falls flat the hell on its face and just becomes extremely annoying and stupid de gozarimasu desu. And are we going to have a dead mom moment in every episode de gozarimasu desu? Even Family Circus limits the amount of time that its dead relatives show up de gozarimasu desu.

I'm not looking forward to the next episode de gozarimasu desu. The preview for it looks terrible de gozarimasu desu.

Also, TV-Nihon de gozarimasu desu? If you're going to slap a string of Japanese at the end of all of Mandora Boy's fucking sentences, EXPLAIN WHAT THE HELL IT MEANS DE GOZARIMASU DESU!!

(and pro tip from someone who doesn't speak Japanese: there's no R in "gozaimasu")

I was kinda wondering whether to drop this show, after all six episodes have been pretty rubbish and reading this thread has certainly made up my mind. One day, I will see a LWW to the end.

7 was rather underwhelming, the dream sequence was incredibly short, and despite technically being a Tsubasa episode, we saw little ot nothing about him, besides his potion mixing skills.

8 was interesting, I like the fact that each episode focuses on two Magirangers at once, works well with the family motif, and for once Kai wasn't the main focus, which was great.

9 had bottles in ships, horses, mechs... I didn't pay much attention to be honest.