Episode 1 starts off with the Legend War, similar to the first episode of Kamen Rider Decade. In this war we see almost every single Ranger from the past. It thought this was awesome, especially the way teams of similar themes fight together such as Hurricaneger and Kakuranger, who are both ninjas. It was also great seeing all of these past Rangers in HD. The epic battle ends with all of the Rangers uniting their powers and destroying the Zangyack invaders.
After this, we are introduced to the Gokaigers. My favourite character so far is Luka; I find her mannerisms and personality hilarious, especially when money is concerned. I really like the scene where they each talk to the civilians since it shows some personality from each of the Gokaigers. Captain Marvelous doesn’t waste any time but asks about the greatest treasure politely, wheras Luka is more aggressive in her approach. We learn a lot more about the characters as the episodes go on. Luka is very interested in material possessions such as money and jewelry, Ahim seems to be of royalty since she refers to earthlings as “commoners”, Joe usually keeps quiet and calm, Don is cheerful mechanic of the team and Marvelous is the cool leader.
The form changes in Episode 1 were interesting. I think it was appropriate to show Goranger first because of nostalgia and I figured that Shinkenger would be featured in a early episode because it seems to very popular. Magiranger was also interesting because we got to see a male MagiBlue and a female MagiYellow. Although, I did feel that the Shinkenger and Magiranger appearances were rushed. I would’ve prefered Magiranger to be saved until the Magiranger focus episode for added effect.
Episode 2 brought the Dekaranger and Hurricaneger form changes. Hurricaneger was another interesting change with some more gender swapping colours. The attack involving GaoRed, GoseiRed, ShinkenRed, MagiRed and GekiRed was very cool since it involved traits and powers from each of the teams.
I’m not sure what the purpose of the boy really was. Oddly, we weren’t told his name and not a lot was revealed about his grandfather’s death in the Legend War. I think he could have an important role in future episodes.
I really liked how the GokaiOh battle took place in a unique location instead of the usual city or mountains that are always seen in previous Sentai series. However, I was disappointed that the individual machines didn’t get much screentime to themselves. I’m still not sure of the names or purposes of the machines since they all just fire lasers, except for Gokai Galleon because it’s the base. Hopefully they’ll get some screentime in the future.
GRADE
These two episodes were a great introduction to the whole Gokaiger world so I give these two episodes a 5/5
When these episodes are used for Power Rangers, I would suggest reshooting most of the shots in the Legend War to remove seasons from before Mighty Morphin. As I’ve said in previous reviews, I think it would be better not to introduce pre-Zyuranger Sentai seasons into the Power Rangers universe. This would mean that the Goranger’s appearance as a form change, but this could be easily reshot to include the original Mighty Morphin Rangers.