#anyway you should all watch magiranger

[mo-ok]

ultimate god sleipnir

[dangerouscommiesubversive]

May I ask for your first impressions of Magiranger?

Oh, absolutely you may. I’ve been excited to get to this one, because as a rule I’m pretty excited about more fantasy-oriented tokusatsu. (Like I said yesterday, Mystic Force is the only Power Rangers I’ve actually seen, because my husband suggested we watch some a few years ago and I saw that and was like, “I had not been informed that there were wizards, I require magic.” Of course I’ve forgotten most of it at this point, so all the cool suits are coming as a delightful surprise again.)

Anyway. First impressions!

Seeing Hiroya Matsumoto here is kind of a trip, since he’s a fresh-faced babby of 19 and hasn��t quite grown into the majesty of his nose yet. He’s also definitely not as polished an actor in this as he was in Go-Busters, it’s surprisingly cute.

Their magical cell phones are very charming, they look like something you’d pull out of your pocket in a mid-Nineties FMV game.

I am delighted that Kai is a soccer boy who does soccer moves during battles, he and Haruto should hang out.

I’m pretty thrilled with the amount of goofy shapeshifting I’ve gotten to see so far.

Wolzard is 1. a very funny name and 2. an excellent suit

All the suits are pretty great, really, the Magiranger look is very stylish.

The mooks (Zobils?) are genuinely upsetting to look at, they’ve got those teeth all out there and they’re kinda wet, wow.

There’s some for real Harry Potter influence going on with their little magical hidey-hole. I mean, it’s clearly deliberate, it was 2005, HP was a pretty big deal at the time. Very pleased that this means they actually get brooms.

There are cute goth girls who turn into a sexy vampire kaijin lady and I feel loved by the universe.

Somehow I wasn’t expecting there to be an ending dance, which is absurd, because I’ve had that ending theme on two different Spotify playlists for ages now and it’s exactly the kind of track that gets an ending dance. Also, the dance is cute, and I love it.

They for real did some filming in New Zealand, apparently? Must’ve made it real easy on the team doing Mystic Force.

I cannot conceive of watching this alongside Hibiki, of all Riders. Imagine the whiplash of going from a show that’s this bonkers right out the gate to Hibiki, The Show Where Nothing Happens. It’d be like going off a log flume and landing in a lazy river.

Surprisingly, I’m not as immediately in love with this as I was with Gekiranger, but then, something about the specific theme of martial arts instruction in Gekiranger apparently spoke to me on a deep level. Also, please note that not as in love shouldn’t be taken to mean that I’m not in love at all, because I’m definitely head-over-heels and I’m very excited to watch more.