Go-onger is one of my favourite seasons so hearing that it would have a 2-parter was great news. I’ve been wondering if there are any reasons for giving certain tribute episodes two parts. Does it depend on the plot or is it something to do with popularity? I know Shinkenger was a popular season but I’m not sure about Hurricaneger and Go-onger.
It was nice to see the goofier side of Sousuke that we didn’t see a lot of in his previous appearance in Shinkenger vs Go-onger. But as always, there’s conflict between Sousuke and Marvelous. The conflict between Red Rangers also happened in Shinkenger vs Go-onger between Sousuke and Takeru so it feels like I’ve seen it all before. The Sousuke and Takeru conflict might’ve been different; I can’t really remember because it’s been a while since I’ve watched it.
These episodes have a lot of guest stars from Go-onger which is great. We have Sousuke, Bomper, Speedor, Bus-On and BearRV. I really didn’t except Bus-On to return since he doesn’t have a part in the Speedor and BearRV romance, but I’m glad he did return to complete the main trio. It would’ve been nice to see Saki/Go-on Yellow return since she has a part in this romance, but it might’ve not worked with the ‘conflict between Red Rangers’ plot.
This episode we finally get the full Gokai Changes of Battle Fever J and Changeman (I know they used Battle Fever J in the movie, but we haven’t seen it yet so I’m not counting it). I’m still wondering why they left it this long to use them, and it seems too much of a coincidence that we get them both in one episode. While on the subject of Changeman, Change Mermaid (White) looks really odd. We also got a full team Gokai Change of Dekaranger which was good.
While I loved the Gokai-Go-onger henshin and fight, it would’ve been nice to see Go-on Silver and Go-on Gold separately, but obviously this would’ve been impossible. I have no problem with the Go-on Wings combo though. This is probably one of my favourite tribute fights, mainly because of the overall look of it.
Part two gave us some great and unexpected Gokai Machine action. Since we’ve never seen the Gokai Machines fight individually since the brief battle in Episode 2, I certainly wasn’t expecting it to happen again. This episode also features the debut of Go-on GokaiOh, but I’m not sure what to think of it. It looks cool, but I think it’s just impractical. On the plus side, it is nice to see something different. Also, I’m trying to figure out how certain shots were even filmed, like the one in the banner above. The finisher was quite good and it reminded me of the Thunder Ultrazord finisher.
GRADE
These two episodes were a very satisfying two-parter and tribute to my favourite season (maybe that makes me a little biased). I give this two-parter a 4/5
This episode may be a little difficult to adapt since RPM is set in the future. However, with some careful planning, it is possible to achieve an enjoyable end result. Machalcon would have to be ‘just another Zord’ since they didn’t have personalities in RPM. Therefore, the entire plot of the two-parter would have to be re-worked.