This morning’s Gokaiger seems to have lifted a dream I had the other night where I stole ShinkenRed’s Ranger Key and ran off to go fight some bad guys (though in the dream I didn’t get beat down). Though let’s admit, haven’t we all wanted to do that at some point? This is a strange plot to be in the second episode of a new show; let alone a highly anticipated one like this, but it certainly drives the narrative in the right direction.

The premiere episode portrayed the Gokaiger as reluctant heroes, even mentioning that they would leave the Earth to it’s doom as this clearly wasn’t the first time they’ve seen Zangyack take over worlds. Thankfully they didn’t, all because of curry rice. The general population seems to have known of their existence, but has little regard for this new Sentai team, most likely due to their announcement that they only came to the Earth to get the universe’s most precious treasure, not to help. It’s hardly surprising that this unnamed kid appears and tries to steal a henshin device to save the Earth, the Gokaiger weren’t even aware of what the Super Sentai team were. It’s becoming more and more apparent that the universe’s most precious treasure is peace, love or something else of equal measure that the Gokaiger haven’t quite realised yet, but are starting to finally understand the heroes they’re meant to be.

Hello, old friend

We finally see the long rumoured return of Aka Red, supporting a number 35 of his chest now and voiced again by famous voice actor, Toru Furuya. Not only does he pull classic trope and steal the limelight for the episode, he’s the one who gives Captain Marvelous the Ranger Keys and sends him to Earth. Having Aka Red as a key element to the show’s history genuinely makes me excited, he doesn’t feel tacked on in any way and nice to see him recognised properly since his only appearance 5 years ago.

Hello even older friend

It’s Atsushi Hashimoto! The original actor who played Magi Red, who the Gokaiger should have been looking for. It’s actually very strange to see an Atsushi return after the vastly disappointing Decade, but it looks like Toei has learnt from it’s Alternative Universe replacement actors. I still fear that it could go down that route, but we’ll just have to wait and see. This does however sets the show up for disappointment because now fans of different respected series’ are now going to expect the same treatment when their favourite team appears.

Conclusion

Gokaiger has started off very strong. The fights are great, there’s enough for the fans to completely geek over, without seeming like pure fan service, it has it’s own clear plot and characters are likable. The return of previous Sentai members is what most people are watching the show for, but even with that removed, the show can exist on it’s own merits *cough*notlikeDecade*cough*. The episode 3 preview shows quite a varied mix of Heroic Changes…