![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Magiranger: Final reaction
Jul. 31st, 2013 08:23 amAll right, just finished Magiranger, other than the movies, which I can watch later. Good show--I'm a sucker for themes like "family."
The first arc was definitely the best. The Ozu siblings were very strong characters, and it was great watching them try to make it on their own after their mother's death right in front of them. They had to learn all about magic on their own and fight off enemies that had even thwarted their father. If the show had ended there with Branken being defeated, it would have been great.
The second arc? Not nearly so good. While the Ozus were still fantastic and got a lot of good character episodes (my personal favorite is probably Makito, whose episodes were almost always great, and he was easily the most relatable as the oldest who took his responsibility of being the man of the family very seriously), newcomer Hikaru was a little on the bland side. And his romance with Urara really didn't get enough time to develop--they go from him teasing her and her flipping out on him to the relationship between Hikaru and the family as teacher and students, to suddenly her being in love with him. In contrast, Kai's romance with the girl from his class was all background and much better handled. Meemy really wasn't that great a villain to carry the arc--they kept introducing increasingly more dangerous monsters, and I never bought the drama. Not even when the Magirangers received the Legend Power--I couldn't buy into their whole "losing humanity" thing, and the writers seemed to be afraid to let the stakes get too high.
Things improved much more for the third arc, against the Hades Gods of Infershia. While a couple of things were shaky (like Titan being more of a pacifist, which was hard to buy into when we hadn't seen enough of him to really care), it was a lot better. It resolved the issues of their mother and father. It really showed the growth of the siblings and how far they'd come along. You got a lot of emotional develop for a lot of them. Hell, I didn't even complain too much about Nai and Mare in the finale because, while it was still a little odd, it still made sense with how much they'd feared the Hades Gods. And maybe that hug with Houka was a little more than just friendly.
Overall, not too bad a show, and I definitely recommend it. I'll be interested to watch Boukenger later on when I'm done with my Kamen Rider binge for Decade.
The first arc was definitely the best. The Ozu siblings were very strong characters, and it was great watching them try to make it on their own after their mother's death right in front of them. They had to learn all about magic on their own and fight off enemies that had even thwarted their father. If the show had ended there with Branken being defeated, it would have been great.
The second arc? Not nearly so good. While the Ozus were still fantastic and got a lot of good character episodes (my personal favorite is probably Makito, whose episodes were almost always great, and he was easily the most relatable as the oldest who took his responsibility of being the man of the family very seriously), newcomer Hikaru was a little on the bland side. And his romance with Urara really didn't get enough time to develop--they go from him teasing her and her flipping out on him to the relationship between Hikaru and the family as teacher and students, to suddenly her being in love with him. In contrast, Kai's romance with the girl from his class was all background and much better handled. Meemy really wasn't that great a villain to carry the arc--they kept introducing increasingly more dangerous monsters, and I never bought the drama. Not even when the Magirangers received the Legend Power--I couldn't buy into their whole "losing humanity" thing, and the writers seemed to be afraid to let the stakes get too high.
Things improved much more for the third arc, against the Hades Gods of Infershia. While a couple of things were shaky (like Titan being more of a pacifist, which was hard to buy into when we hadn't seen enough of him to really care), it was a lot better. It resolved the issues of their mother and father. It really showed the growth of the siblings and how far they'd come along. You got a lot of emotional develop for a lot of them. Hell, I didn't even complain too much about Nai and Mare in the finale because, while it was still a little odd, it still made sense with how much they'd feared the Hades Gods. And maybe that hug with Houka was a little more than just friendly.
Overall, not too bad a show, and I definitely recommend it. I'll be interested to watch Boukenger later on when I'm done with my Kamen Rider binge for Decade.