Spotlight on Fandoms: GoGo Sentai Boukenger
Hello, hello again everyone, it's Shanie (yes, again, for so the RNG gods have determined) with the GoGo Sentai Boukenger segment of this week's Spotlight on Fandoms.
Boukenger is the 30th incarnation of Toei's long-running Super Sentai series. It's part of the genre known as tokusatsu, which is basically any live-action show usually of the sci-fi, fantasy, or horror genre that involves special effects and actors in suits. The most recent fifteen Super Sentai series have, of course, been adapted -- often quite loosely -- into the American Power Rangers franchise. After a 49-episode run, Boukenger's final episode aired yesterday in Japan. *sniffle* I kind of got accidentally spoiled for it. Oops.
How'd I get into this show? Well, I got tired of waiting for Power Rangers: Operation Overdrive, which will be adapted from Boukenger, to start. Which it does in two weeks, and when it does you just might witness a little bit of my occasional flailing about what they've done with the sentai footage. You can get away with a lot more in Japanese children's programming than you can in the U.S. so the storylines are edgier, the fight sequences are less neutered, and the crack? The crack is off the scale.
But you still get the spandex and giant robots, 'cause it wouldn't be a tokusatsu show otherwise.
And now, on to the premise.
"GoGo Sentai Boukenger" translates roughly to "Rumbling Squadron Adventure Ranger," where "GoGo" is, I gather, a slang term referring to the sound of car engines. The Boukenger team works for an organization called Search Guard Successor, whose mission is to protect artifacts from ancient civilizations, as well as endangered species. The Boukengers themselves are a special-ops team charged with hunting down and collecting the most unique and dangerous, often most sought-after, relics.
One of the things I've come to appreciate about the show, much more since I started writing this semester's Mystical Artifacts class, is how rooted it is in traditional folklore and literature, and the twists it often puts on those stories (as with Cinderella in last week's class). In that regard it reminds me of Xena: Warrior Princess to an extent. Much like Xena it also has a wonderful fluidity between drama and pure comedic crack -- not that this is uncommon in Japanese media or anything.
Beyond the basic concept of treasure hunting, the prevalent theme of the series is that "everyone has a treasure that belongs only to them." Whether that's redemption for past misdeeds, as with Akashi, Souta, and Masumi, absolution for personal demons, as with Eiji, or a sense of self-identity, as with Sakura and Natsuki, each member of the team hopes that in the course of their adventures they can each find their own personal treasure. This makes for a pretty character-driven series, for all that it's a kids' action show.
The Heroes
Satoru Akashi (Mitsuomi Takahashi), BoukenRed -- Leader of the team, often referred to as "Chief" by the others when they're not calling him Akashi. He's the only member of the team that doesn't go on a first-name basis. He was once a freelance treasure hunter known as The Immortal Fang, with a reputation for always getting what he was after, but retired after an expedition where a fire trap killed his two partners. This makes him intensely protective of his SGS teammates, but for all that he feels they're his responsibility he still has reckless, impulsive tendencies and a temper that doesn't blow up often, but does so spectacularly.
Sakura Nishihori (Haruka Suenaga), BoukenPink -- "Sub-Chief" of the group, an elite forces combat veteran with an unholy love of calculating risks, assessing probabilities, and basing her decisions on facts and numbers rather than people. In one episode, she obsessively formulates a mission plan and is told by her teammate Souta that it's a great plan, but she needs to leave room for improvisation. She replies that she knows, and since he's so good at improvising, his role in the plan is calculated so he can do just that. That's Sakura in a nutshell. Her family runs a powerful financial clique (think Mitsubishi or Sumitomo) and she was raised as its heir, which is a large part of why she's so aloof and unemotional, traits intensified by the time she spent in the military after running away to escape life in the corporate world.
Masumi Inou (Yasuka Saitou), BoukenBlack -- Much like Akashi, he used to be a treasure hunter, although Masumi's adventures tended to be more of the scavenging and tomb-robbing variety. As a young orphan he traveled with a group of abusive older treasure hunters, until Yami no Yaiba (more on him later) murdered everyone in the group but Masumi. One of the two rookie members of the team, he joined up with the intention of using SGS's resources just long enough to get him to a treasure he could run off with and make his reputation -- until Akashi saved his ass from a magma pit and pretty much told him he could either stay with the team or burn to death. Masumi hasn't forgotten this; he and Akashi still have slashy tension.
Souta Mogami (Masashi Mikami), BoukenBlue -- Souta is easily one of my favorite characters on the show. He's a former spy and the team's information expert, sweet, cheerful, and possessed of an unfailing ability to drop everything for the sake of flirting with a pretty girl. Even if he's in the middle of trying to foil her sinister plans. It drives his teammates nuts. He has a Palm Pilot that can hack into military security systems, and he mostly uses it to keep track of his dates in obsessive detail. He's adorable and I just want to cuddle the hell out of him.
Natsuki Mamiya (Chise Nakamura), BoukenYellow -- The other rookie member of the team and a frequently ditzy girl who can be both irritating and endearing, and has a tendency to refer to herself in the third person. She and Masumi have been traveling together for several years, ever since he found her trapped in a landslide among some ruins; presumably the accident left her with no memory of her past or her real name, the only clue being the bracelet she wears. She also has an innate, untrained ability to have vision-flashes of the immediate future; about halfway through the series, her backstory is fleshed out.
Eiji Takaoka (Masayuki Deai), BoukenSilver -- In the fine "sixth hero" Super Sentai tradition, Eiji first appears as a monk-like wanderer, complete with Buddhist ringed staff. As a descendant of the Takaoka line, his hereditary occupation is that of an "Ashu watcher:" he guards against the re-emergence of the Ashu demon tribe, which his family sealed away in another dimension generations ago. Cocky and arrogant, he hates following orders and ends up at odds with Sakura frequently until their issues are resolved in one of my favorite episodes, "The Fire of the Ruined Country." Eiji has a habit of snacking on the seemingly neverending supply of raw vegetables in his pockets. Including bell peppers. I refuse to believe it's not a Chairman Kaga shoutout.
. . . did I mention that Eiji is half-Ashu?
The Villains
Negative Syndicate -- A loosely affiliated group of organizations with whom the Boukengers content on a regular basis. Sometimes they work together, but often they're rivals. All of them, with the exception of Gai and Rei, can create monsters of some form or another.
The Allies
Makino Morio -- Every Sentai team needs someone at headquarters to act as tech support. Makino-sensei, as the Boukengers call him, fills that role. He's your standard eccentric yet slightly father-figure-like genius.
Mister Voice -- This goofy little cartoon who appears on the display screens at HQ is the team's liaison with SGS Command.
Why do I watch?
It's not the fight sequences, although they can be kind of cool. Sentai storylines are for the most part (Carranger was a parody, mmmkay?) more intelligent and less simplistic than their PR adaptations, so really it's the storyline and the characters that draw me in. When characters routinely get beaten up and bloodied after battles it makes the battles . . . a surprising amount less cartoonish, even with the rubber suits. No severed limbs (although there was a near-evisceration), but no characters with special powers either, so there is definitely a sense of danger to the fights.
But whatever. Honestly, I watch for the characters: each of them is part of the team for a personal reason, and the show is ultimately driven by who they are and what they're searching for. I love that the show can be serious and dramatic, then turn on a dime and be completely cracked out.
Plus, you know how they do the goofy roll calls with the poses and explosions in the background? Akashi caught on fire once. (YouTube link.) I can't not love that.
Is there shippiness? Oh, yes. Actually there are all kinds of fun interpersonal dynamics at work: Sakura's feelings for Akashi, Masumi and Natsuki's big brother/little sister roles, the way Natsuki looks up to everyone and yet somehow treats Eiji like a little brother, fun slashy subtext for Akashi and Eiji, Sakura and Souta's quirky friendship, and the way Eiji manages to grate on everyone's nerves. And, of course, Souta's bizarre rivalry/flirtation with Shizuka.
It might be smarter and a little edgier than Power Rangers (except for Time Force. Time Force was made of awesome.), but in the end it's still just a fun kids' show. But one with a surprising amount of class to go with its cracked-out-ness.
Also, I'm twelve, and when you have a weapon called the "Blow Knuckle" and fighting moves dubbed "Climax Shoot," "Adventure Double Screw," and "Rising Penetration", well . . .
Don't expect an English-language DVD release, sadly. But the fabulous fansubbing team at TV Nihon has all the episodes in subtitled release.
You could watch Power Rangers: Operation Overdrive when it premieres in two weeks, but that is just So. Not. The. Same.
Links and Things
Boukenger Opening Credits: subtitled in forced 4:3, and unsubbed in widescreen. DO YOU HEAR ME, OPERATION OVERDRIVE? THIS IS A GOOD THEME. YOURS SUCKS.
End Theme -- Unsubbed, unfortunately, but OH MY GOD IT'S CATCHY. The actual credits sequence is just really cute.
Best mecha fight sequence ever, from Task 24. Hilarious.
Natsuki's recap of the story of Cinderella from the beginning of Task 26.
And just to balance out the funny with OMGWTFDRAMA: The climactic fight sequence from the aforementioned Task 31. I couldn't find this clip subtitled, unfortunately, but Sakura and Eiji carry the beginning of the scene well enough that the dialogue doesn't really matter. I guarantee you will not see this footage on Power Rangers.
And that's it for me until the next time the RNG calls me out. ;)
Boukenger is the 30th incarnation of Toei's long-running Super Sentai series. It's part of the genre known as tokusatsu, which is basically any live-action show usually of the sci-fi, fantasy, or horror genre that involves special effects and actors in suits. The most recent fifteen Super Sentai series have, of course, been adapted -- often quite loosely -- into the American Power Rangers franchise. After a 49-episode run, Boukenger's final episode aired yesterday in Japan. *sniffle* I kind of got accidentally spoiled for it. Oops.
How'd I get into this show? Well, I got tired of waiting for Power Rangers: Operation Overdrive, which will be adapted from Boukenger, to start. Which it does in two weeks, and when it does you just might witness a little bit of my occasional flailing about what they've done with the sentai footage. You can get away with a lot more in Japanese children's programming than you can in the U.S. so the storylines are edgier, the fight sequences are less neutered, and the crack? The crack is off the scale.
But you still get the spandex and giant robots, 'cause it wouldn't be a tokusatsu show otherwise.
And now, on to the premise.
"GoGo Sentai Boukenger" translates roughly to "Rumbling Squadron Adventure Ranger," where "GoGo" is, I gather, a slang term referring to the sound of car engines. The Boukenger team works for an organization called Search Guard Successor, whose mission is to protect artifacts from ancient civilizations, as well as endangered species. The Boukengers themselves are a special-ops team charged with hunting down and collecting the most unique and dangerous, often most sought-after, relics.
One of the things I've come to appreciate about the show, much more since I started writing this semester's Mystical Artifacts class, is how rooted it is in traditional folklore and literature, and the twists it often puts on those stories (as with Cinderella in last week's class). In that regard it reminds me of Xena: Warrior Princess to an extent. Much like Xena it also has a wonderful fluidity between drama and pure comedic crack -- not that this is uncommon in Japanese media or anything.
Beyond the basic concept of treasure hunting, the prevalent theme of the series is that "everyone has a treasure that belongs only to them." Whether that's redemption for past misdeeds, as with Akashi, Souta, and Masumi, absolution for personal demons, as with Eiji, or a sense of self-identity, as with Sakura and Natsuki, each member of the team hopes that in the course of their adventures they can each find their own personal treasure. This makes for a pretty character-driven series, for all that it's a kids' action show.
The Heroes
Satoru Akashi (Mitsuomi Takahashi), BoukenRed -- Leader of the team, often referred to as "Chief" by the others when they're not calling him Akashi. He's the only member of the team that doesn't go on a first-name basis. He was once a freelance treasure hunter known as The Immortal Fang, with a reputation for always getting what he was after, but retired after an expedition where a fire trap killed his two partners. This makes him intensely protective of his SGS teammates, but for all that he feels they're his responsibility he still has reckless, impulsive tendencies and a temper that doesn't blow up often, but does so spectacularly.
Sakura Nishihori (Haruka Suenaga), BoukenPink -- "Sub-Chief" of the group, an elite forces combat veteran with an unholy love of calculating risks, assessing probabilities, and basing her decisions on facts and numbers rather than people. In one episode, she obsessively formulates a mission plan and is told by her teammate Souta that it's a great plan, but she needs to leave room for improvisation. She replies that she knows, and since he's so good at improvising, his role in the plan is calculated so he can do just that. That's Sakura in a nutshell. Her family runs a powerful financial clique (think Mitsubishi or Sumitomo) and she was raised as its heir, which is a large part of why she's so aloof and unemotional, traits intensified by the time she spent in the military after running away to escape life in the corporate world.
Masumi Inou (Yasuka Saitou), BoukenBlack -- Much like Akashi, he used to be a treasure hunter, although Masumi's adventures tended to be more of the scavenging and tomb-robbing variety. As a young orphan he traveled with a group of abusive older treasure hunters, until Yami no Yaiba (more on him later) murdered everyone in the group but Masumi. One of the two rookie members of the team, he joined up with the intention of using SGS's resources just long enough to get him to a treasure he could run off with and make his reputation -- until Akashi saved his ass from a magma pit and pretty much told him he could either stay with the team or burn to death. Masumi hasn't forgotten this; he and Akashi still have slashy tension.
Souta Mogami (Masashi Mikami), BoukenBlue -- Souta is easily one of my favorite characters on the show. He's a former spy and the team's information expert, sweet, cheerful, and possessed of an unfailing ability to drop everything for the sake of flirting with a pretty girl. Even if he's in the middle of trying to foil her sinister plans. It drives his teammates nuts. He has a Palm Pilot that can hack into military security systems, and he mostly uses it to keep track of his dates in obsessive detail. He's adorable and I just want to cuddle the hell out of him.
Natsuki Mamiya (Chise Nakamura), BoukenYellow -- The other rookie member of the team and a frequently ditzy girl who can be both irritating and endearing, and has a tendency to refer to herself in the third person. She and Masumi have been traveling together for several years, ever since he found her trapped in a landslide among some ruins; presumably the accident left her with no memory of her past or her real name, the only clue being the bracelet she wears. She also has an innate, untrained ability to have vision-flashes of the immediate future; about halfway through the series, her backstory is fleshed out.
Eiji Takaoka (Masayuki Deai), BoukenSilver -- In the fine "sixth hero" Super Sentai tradition, Eiji first appears as a monk-like wanderer, complete with Buddhist ringed staff. As a descendant of the Takaoka line, his hereditary occupation is that of an "Ashu watcher:" he guards against the re-emergence of the Ashu demon tribe, which his family sealed away in another dimension generations ago. Cocky and arrogant, he hates following orders and ends up at odds with Sakura frequently until their issues are resolved in one of my favorite episodes, "The Fire of the Ruined Country." Eiji has a habit of snacking on the seemingly neverending supply of raw vegetables in his pockets. Including bell peppers. I refuse to believe it's not a Chairman Kaga shoutout.
. . . did I mention that Eiji is half-Ashu?
The Villains
Negative Syndicate -- A loosely affiliated group of organizations with whom the Boukengers content on a regular basis. Sometimes they work together, but often they're rivals. All of them, with the exception of Gai and Rei, can create monsters of some form or another.
- Goadom Civilization -- An ancient race awakened accidentally in Task 1, on Masumi and Natsuki's trial mission. Led by Arch Priest Gaja, he of the weird voice, creepy eyes, and scenery-chewing, their aim is to use whatever Precious artifacts they can steal to restore their civilization to glory.
- Jaryuu Tribe -- Reptilian creatures who think the Earth could really be better suited to their physiology, and want to make that happen. Their leader is Creator-King Ryuuon, once a scholar and treasure hunter who got a little too obsessed with his idea of creating a world for dragons and changed himself into his current form using research and an artifact from ancient Lemuria. He and Akashi have a tense rivalry.
- Dark Shadow -- A ninja clan bent on selling whatever Precious it can claim to the highest bidder on the black market. Their leader is -- apparently -- a blue owl named Gekkou-sama, and his two main henchmen are Yami no Yaiba and Kaze no Shizuka. Masumi's rivalry with Yaiba is personal, since he swore revenge for his murdered expedition group; Sakura and Souta frequently square off with Shizuka. During which fights, yes, Souta flirts with her outrageously.
- The Questers -- Gai and Rei are the last two Ashu left in this dimension, revived by Arch Priest Gaja and mechanically enhanced. Their purpose in hunting down Precious is an oldie but goodie: your standard megalomaniacal desire to wipe out the human race. Eiji, as an Ashu watcher, is their primary nemesis.
The Allies
Makino Morio -- Every Sentai team needs someone at headquarters to act as tech support. Makino-sensei, as the Boukengers call him, fills that role. He's your standard eccentric yet slightly father-figure-like genius.
Mister Voice -- This goofy little cartoon who appears on the display screens at HQ is the team's liaison with SGS Command.
Why do I watch?
It's not the fight sequences, although they can be kind of cool. Sentai storylines are for the most part (Carranger was a parody, mmmkay?) more intelligent and less simplistic than their PR adaptations, so really it's the storyline and the characters that draw me in. When characters routinely get beaten up and bloodied after battles it makes the battles . . . a surprising amount less cartoonish, even with the rubber suits. No severed limbs (although there was a near-evisceration), but no characters with special powers either, so there is definitely a sense of danger to the fights.
But whatever. Honestly, I watch for the characters: each of them is part of the team for a personal reason, and the show is ultimately driven by who they are and what they're searching for. I love that the show can be serious and dramatic, then turn on a dime and be completely cracked out.
Plus, you know how they do the goofy roll calls with the poses and explosions in the background? Akashi caught on fire once. (YouTube link.) I can't not love that.
Is there shippiness? Oh, yes. Actually there are all kinds of fun interpersonal dynamics at work: Sakura's feelings for Akashi, Masumi and Natsuki's big brother/little sister roles, the way Natsuki looks up to everyone and yet somehow treats Eiji like a little brother, fun slashy subtext for Akashi and Eiji, Sakura and Souta's quirky friendship, and the way Eiji manages to grate on everyone's nerves. And, of course, Souta's bizarre rivalry/flirtation with Shizuka.
It might be smarter and a little edgier than Power Rangers (except for Time Force. Time Force was made of awesome.), but in the end it's still just a fun kids' show. But one with a surprising amount of class to go with its cracked-out-ness.
Also, I'm twelve, and when you have a weapon called the "Blow Knuckle" and fighting moves dubbed "Climax Shoot," "Adventure Double Screw," and "Rising Penetration", well . . .
Don't expect an English-language DVD release, sadly. But the fabulous fansubbing team at TV Nihon has all the episodes in subtitled release.
You could watch Power Rangers: Operation Overdrive when it premieres in two weeks, but that is just So. Not. The. Same.
Links and Things
Boukenger Opening Credits: subtitled in forced 4:3, and unsubbed in widescreen. DO YOU HEAR ME, OPERATION OVERDRIVE? THIS IS A GOOD THEME. YOURS SUCKS.
End Theme -- Unsubbed, unfortunately, but OH MY GOD IT'S CATCHY. The actual credits sequence is just really cute.
Best mecha fight sequence ever, from Task 24. Hilarious.
Natsuki's recap of the story of Cinderella from the beginning of Task 26.
And just to balance out the funny with OMGWTFDRAMA: The climactic fight sequence from the aforementioned Task 31. I couldn't find this clip subtitled, unfortunately, but Sakura and Eiji carry the beginning of the scene well enough that the dialogue doesn't really matter. I guarantee you will not see this footage on Power Rangers.
And that's it for me until the next time the RNG calls me out. ;)