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I have been asked why this is no longer kept up. There's an easy answer, really. I started this for fun, mostly because I could, and I had access to episodes of the shows which were very hard to get. But now internet service is wonderful, and pirates (heheh) abound! Within a few hours of the episodes airing, someone's got them up on the net. It's not horribly long before people who translate better than I do put up subtitles. Not to mention people also put up info on Wiki. The amount of time I used to spend right after an episode aired to summarize it just doesn't seem worth the trouble any more.The Gokaiger are shiny. Gokai Red, Captain Marvelous, is played by Ryota Ozawa. Blue, Joe Gibken, is played by Yuki Yamada. Green, Don Dogoier (the scientist, I think), is played by Kazuki Shimizu. Pink, Ahim De Famille, is played by Yui Koike. Yellow, Luka Millfy, is played by Mao Ichimichi. Good heavens, who chose these names? *giggle* Actually, I have a four-year old student named Mao Koike, so there's another reason for me to be amused. In the men, I love Red's jacket, I like Pink's. Don Gogoier is, however, a clothing disaster. I expect to be utterly charmed by the series, though.
This year's premiere was alot of fun! However, the sellers put up signs all around the clothes and paraphrenalia saying not to snap photos. *sigh* The fiends!
Oh, the colors! The COLORS! Laser blasts rain down from a fleet of ships in the skies of Earth! The ships are of fishy-design. Far below, footsoldiers of lilac gray, with heavy armor, march to battle. And who do they face? The protectors of the Earth. Every one we've ever known. The camera starts with Goranger's Akaranger, then pans out to show all of them, standing in their ranks, grouped largely by team and forming an enormous wedge, they cry out and charge together against an army of minions far more numerous than themselves. Focus in on J.A.K.Q.'s Big One, then other leaders such as Liveman's, Denjiman's, Shinkenger's. Then on to others. The Gaoranger are featured briefly, and we see more clearly the elite blue and black soldiers of the enemy army. Gingared blasts the enemy. We move past Magiblue and the others. The Jetman fly in, tumbling numerous enemies off of a ledge and swoop down. The Flashman team fighting. The Zyuranger, from Burai to Geki. Now several reds in a line, guarding each other's backs. Kakuranger's and Hurricanger's, back to back then together cutting down an enemy. Shurikenger and Hurricaneyellow, behind them we can see Ninjawhite, Blue Swallow, and a number of others. Akaranger pauses in fighting to look up at the fleet above them, the sky is pierced with blue-white laser blasts which rain down upon the angy heroes. They form around him, Goeseiknight to his left, Shinkenyellow to his right. He tells them to pool their power to save the world. No one hesitates. Oh look, Abarekiller! Memories! Their power glows and then rolls outwards., With Akaranger focusing, the power devastates the enemy fleet. The world is safe, and our heroes have passed into legend. That was a long time ago.
We pan out to space, and a brilliant, red pirate ship with a blade on its prow rather than the torso of a woman, moves through the vacuum. Move to the interior, where a deformed robot parrot starts squawking in excitement, and Luka Millfy, a young woman in a dirty yellow coat sitting on the couch asks it what's the matter. It cheerfully tells her they're closing on Earth. Famed Earth of song. "Seriously?" asks Don Dogoier, a golden-haired young man in a green jacket. He opens up a viewscreen. We see the great Blue Marble from the moon. "Ooh!" he gasps. Behind him, Ahim De Famille, a woman wearing a pink fluffy blouse is seated at a table, drinking tea. She says with a gentle smile, "It's such a lovely star." She gets up, ethereal in a way, and adds, "It looks like a lovely place for people to live." (more specifically, that people can live there easily) Luka, now standing beside Don, agrees. She, however, relates the planet in their view as more like an enormous, precious gem. This makes Don roll his eyes and utter a snide comment. But someone's coming up the stairs, Joe Gibken in blue. "Either's all the same," he says irritably. "There are things we want on that world," he adds, hooking a thumb towards Earth. "The greatest treasures of the Universe." Someone's pawing gently through a chest full of familiar figurines, and we know in a moment it's the captain by process of elimination, as Luka teases Joe. Don reasons that they can't be sure the treasures are there. The captain makes a comment in a hard voice that this is the decision. The others utter agreeing noises, each to his or her own temperment. Suddenly, a ship-alarm goes off. They turn alertly, and Luka taps in commands at the console. Frustrated with a lack of response she snaps, "Professor!" Don tolerantly moves to the console and pulls up the new view. Ooooh, my. It is a fleet of ships, to which sight they react with expressions of "Oh sh**!" and Don says "There are three hundred of them! This is bad, they found us!" He sidles nervously behind Luka for protection. Joe, with a note of boredom in his voice, turns his head and says, "What shall we do, Marvelous? This is annoying." Marvelous is not fazed. He lounges in his chair, says it's all good. Don, though, is anxious. But Marvelous stands, lips curved wickedly, and says "That's what pirates do." He holds up a figure, this of Gokaired, and triggers it.
Roll credits! 35th Sentai, Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger! I think I'm in love with the opening credits. Although I'm starting to wonder if Ryota Ozawa's lips are stuck in a permanent curve.
The red Galleon flies towards their enemies, who are not impressed. One of the blue and black commanders orders his soldiers to fire and the laser blasts begin. Captain Marvelous orders the Galleon Cannon to fire. The cannons start blasting. With a wild spin of the wheel, he sends his ship straight at an enemy cruiser, cutting through it. The commander, seeing his ships "Lost" and vanishing from his scanner, snarls, "Playtime is over!" and ups the ante. The pirate Galleon is engulfed in flames. "How's that?" the commander growls. A giant humanoid mecha comes charging out of the flames along the surface of the moon. "Weak," comes Marvelous' response. The commander can only react with shock and the mecha leaps into space at his fleet , double-sabers cutting through the ships and then firing blasts until they seem to have all been destroyed. The pirates relax and power down, the various mecha folding in until, externally, there is only a the great red Galleon. 第１語
宇宙海賊現る
UchuuKaizokuArawaru
Out Come the Space Pirates!In the meantime, down on a quiet Earth... people are cheerfully going on with their daily business when a sound in the sky catches their attention. They look up to see the red galleon cruising above their skyscrapers. They gape in astonishment, and the galleon drops two giant anchors, which narrowly miss a cat on a bench who doesn't seem disturbed and the people below, crunching into the cement and doing considerable damage. Down by cables come the five crewmembers dressed in their "civvies" to a roof, where they look with interest at the people below them. Marvelous has a bullhorn and he speaks to them. "Sorry to disturb you, Earth people. We're the Pirate-soldiers, Gokaiger. I'm Captain Marvelous." The people below, still puzzled by the surrealness of it all, repeat the part about pirate to each other. He continues, "We're after the greatest treasures of Earth. So, what are they, please?" His audience remains confused, people glancing at each other. Behind him, Luka pouts and takes the bullhorn, "Don't try to hide them!" Exasperated, Ahim De Famille tells her not to do that and takes the bullhorn next. She greets the people gently and focuses on one startled man. "Do you know?" He states that he does not, and to her further question, that there really isn't anything. He turns to a woman beside him, who confirms. Everyone, in fact, agrees. "Oh dear," says Ahim and turns to her captain. Tall Joe steps forward and says, "I guess we heard wrong." Don whines, grabbing Luka's shoulder and shaking her until she elbows him in the stomach in irritation. "So, what'll we do, Marvelous?" she asks. "Hmm," he says. "Let's go eat." He starts to walk off and green protests, "But we don't have any Earth-money! How?" Marvelous stops, then says, "Luka!" "Eh?" she responds anxiously. "Your ring." She looks down at her right hand, at the silver ring with its lovely violet stone, grasps what he wants and utters a louder, "EEEEH?!" of dismay.
Out in space, the enemy fleet approaches and there is another, far larger ship amongst them. It has sea horses on its prow. Oh, love the music. It's all much like what I used to hear in Yamato for the enemies! Standing on the bridge, staring out at our lovely blue marble, is (according to the Internet) Walz Gil. He turns around and calls, "Barizorg! Insarn!" He has Earth-related orders for them, and Barizorg responds in a delightfully deep voice, "Yes, Boss." He gives his report, and so does Insarn, who is female. She lays her hand coquettishly on Walz Gil's chest saying she likes to see him happy, to which he responds with an affectionate laugh, and then orders them on to Earth. Then someone else steps onto the bridge and out of the shadows. Golden Damaris, who informs him that the pirates have been seen here. Walz is furious, and asks Barizorg for more data. Damaris seems to have a great deal of pull here, facing Walz with unpleasant truths.
A very unhappy Luka has submitted her ring for appraisel at a jeweler's. The man there practically drools, and uses a calculator before offering them 10,000,000 yen. Captain Marvelous accepts. Luka has some nasty things to say, but they leave the store with a huge wad of 10,000 yen bills. Marvelous is looking around at all the people on the street, some of whom are giving them appraising looks (and wouldn't they just?). So, they go into a Snack bar, Safari, where the food is all about 800 or 900 yen. Chicken Curry, Dry Curry. The prices seem to astound Don and Luka. Marvelous and Joe settle at the counter. "What kind of place is this?" Don and Luka whine. He flops his head on the table they're at with Ahim. The waiter looks dismayed, but Captain Marvelous says contentedly, "It smells good," which gets him a smile from the man. "This curry stuff might be really tasty." Don unhappily accepts that may be so. Ahim is delighted with the restaurant, though. She's willing to have the experience. Luka, still fingering the bundle of money, is not happy. Nor is Joe, who says over his shoulder to Marvelous, "So how are we going to go about finding Earth Greatest Treasure?" Marvelous responds something about head-spinning.
The waiter brings three plates of Safari Curry to the table the others are sitting up, and they all three cheer up tremendously. Ahim says, "It looks delicious! I'll eat!" Plates are set out in front of Joe and Marvelous, too. So they all cheerfully crow, "Itadakimasu!" and are just about to dig in when the wall of the restaurant gets blasted. Nothing hits them, though the blast knocks Luka's bundle of money apart so bills cascade around her. Outside we can hear screaming. Joe heads out immediately to see what's going on, Ahim on his tail and Don behind her carries the store's sign. Luka is whimpering as she tries to gather the bills up. Marvellous says in annoyance, "What about the curry?" The restaurant owner, safe but terrified behind the counter, apologizes. Don comes back and says "This is terrible!" then heads out. Marvelous is extremely put out. Yes, I guess he does not have a permanent smirk after all. Luka leaves the money she hasn't gathered and bolts out after him, Marvelous trailing behind.
The sky is full of ships, including Walz' great behometh. While our heroes fret about why their enemies are here, the laser blasts start falling on the city. Explosions start happening where the five are standing. Four of them cringe in fright, but the irritated Captain stands with his hands clasped behind his back. Don protests that they haven't found the treasure yet. Joe looks like he might want to say the same thing, but their Captain has other intentions.
The fleet drops its footsoldiers to ground. Their blue and black commanders are supplemented by a purple being who shouts that he will do this for his lord Walz. He starts firing, blowing up an entire building, and the footsoldiers go at the civilians. A few daycare teachers are frantically guiding tiny, frightened four-five year old children trying to find safety. They hide behind one wall, trying to cover the kids with their bodies as the lead monster approaches. "You can't escape!" he tells them and they scream. Nearby, the Gokaiger are also heading for safety, trailing behind Don. Marvelous is last behind Ahim, and slows as he attention swerves and he sees her stop in mid-run, staring at the peril for those helpless children and their teachers. His preference is probably to bodily lift her out of there, "What's up?" he asks her as she remains in place, watching the soldiers gather around those civilians. Joe comes back to them, too, followed by Luka and Don. The monster grabs a protecting teacher by her throat, the children behind her sob. She tries to plead for the children. The monster throws her down and steps on her head.
"Aren't we going?" Don asks cautiously. Luka responds in a stunned tone, "There's gonna be no tomorrow for this world." Joe notes that the empire is here now. Ahim says softly, "Just like our homeworlds." Don draws in a pained breath. Marvelous is grinding his teeth beside them. The monster points the barrel of his blaster at each child's face, terrorizing them (I know those were real tears, too). Then at the frantic teacher trying to stay between them and him. "Oh, love these faces!" he crows. But Captain Marvelous has had more than enough. Just as the monster is about to fire on them, he is fired on. To the teachers' astonishment, this group of brightly colored strangers steps forward to challenge the enemy. He mocks them, though, as pirates, money-grubbing and treasure hunting. Luka calls him an idiot, and they say that he's the one who's going to disappear. Ahim has pulled them to this responsibility, as Don says that they hate the empire. They pull out their small treasures, the tiny figurines that will turn them into fighting armored soldiers. "Gokai Senshi! Goooooooookaiger!" In their imagery, out come three glowing red X and one V (35, hahah). Our heroes are ready to fight, announcing themselves. They bolt into battle, and their very annoyed enemy fights them. The teachers and the children come out to watch, and one teacher says "They're the thirty-fifth Super Sentai." The kids and her cohort all stare at her in surprise. With cables, Pink swings. Yellow kicks and blue jumps down from high. Green takes a tremendous jump and springs up and down. Red uses sabre and blaster to good effect, calling for their professor and now a trapeze swing. The enemies blast with hand held cannons, but the Gokaiger make an excellent accounting of themselves. Finally, though, they pull out different figurines. Suddenly, the enemy finds themselves facing a different set of armor. The children ask, "Teacher, what's happened?" Their teaches explains that this is the very first Super Sentai, Himitsu Sentai Goranger! "How'd they do that?" Our heroes do the Goranger Hurricane, kicking the power-football from one to another during the fight, pink to green to yellow to blue who hold the balls for red to kick. The ball lands and becomes a garbage truck, to the confusion of the enemy. The garbage truck sucks in several of the footsoldiers and trundles off. The others and their commander continue to fight, and our heroes change again, this time their choice is the Shinkenger. Again they change, this time to the Magiranger. Between all of these attacks, they completely wipe out the footsoldiers. But the leader is not impressed, for they are, he says, only fakes. He rains down blasts upon them, but in their own uniforms they attack now and take him down. Using their keys again they put those into their sabres and use the Final Wave, they attack together. Their power destroys him. "Hah!" says Marvelous.
In the wake of the battle, they sit amongst the rubble. "Well, we did it!" Luka says with pleasure and that they have to look around the planet. Don is still reeling, literally. But now they have to stay, a fact that doesn't work for Don who grabs Marvelous and whines that they can't possibly search all over- but Marvelous cuts him off, clamping a hand down on Don's head and turns around to find the two teachers and five children standing behind him. Ahim steps towards them and asks, "What's the matter?" A little boy is their spokesman and he calls happily, "Thank you!" His teacher adds to his words. "Thank you, sincerely, for helping us!" Seeming slightly disgruntled, Marvelous acknowledges that with a small, wry nod and shoves Don ahead of him, starting away. Joe says coolly, "What are you saying?" and turns to follow his captain. The teacher utters a dismayed noise of confusion. Huffily, Luka says, "Hey, we're space pirates. We're only here looking for treasure," as she turns. Ahim reluctantly goes after her. The second teacher asks, "Then why did you fight them and help us?" Ahim stops and says, "Well..." ahead of her, the others pause in their steps. Marvelous interjects. "It's the Curry rice." Everyone says, "Eh?" "We're hungry," he continues. "So let's go there." Amused, his four cohorts trail him away. However, Don first comes and tells them that is not the only reason they came together. Slightly confused, the teachers exchange glances and watch them go.
I love the scenes. Oh, I hope the show goes well. The ending song runs through all of the teams we've known or merely heard of.
In our next episode, the Gokaiger defend their right to not be the superheroes, Marvelous stating that they are not here to protect the world. That's just a coincidence. They will wear the Reds. Magired, Gaored, Shinkenred, Goseired, Gekired. They will fight in their giant Mecha, two enemies.
弟２語 この星の価値 Kono Hoshi No Kachi This World's Worth
