#yasuko kobayashi

[haveyouseenthistoku]

[fadedsaturated]

I'm beating a dead horse at this point but I'm almost finished with my rewatch of ToQger and it cannot be overstated just how special this season is. How special it is in general, but also how special it is to me and I'm sure plenty of other toku fans out there.

The writing is so sharp, weaving between cheesy, heartfelt, hopeful, and devastating like it's nothing. Episode 32 still gives me chills all over my body. These characters mean so very much to me, and Akira's addition as the sixth ranger only solidifies how well this cast of characters is done.

Also the fact that I'm so deeply compelled by the villains is another testament to how incredible Yasuko Kobayashi's writing is. Each character is so interesting and has their own complex motive for why they oppose the ToQgers, and the ToQger's themselves are one of the best represented childhood friends groups I've ever seen in media.

They so obviously love and support each other through everything and their bond is really the core of what makes this show so wonderful. I don't know, man, this season just really has it all.

Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆

[kamenwriter]

And so I reach the end of Mirai Sentai Timeranger.

Not the greatest series I've watched, but it's got a lot of subtleties to it that I appreciate. The villain is more interested in money than destruction, the "final boss" is obsessed with destruction but used to be sane. The theme of changing your fate takes a very literal meaning with Asami trying to escape the shadow of his Father, and the Timerangers being manipulated by Captain Ryuya. The "sixth" ranger has his own parallel path, and is ultimately doomed by the narrative, but also by his narrow-mindedness.

The ending is left purposefully vague, we don't know what future the Timerangers are returning to, and just have to have faith it's a future worth returning to.

This is Yasuko Kobayashi second series as a head writer, and while a lot of her favorite tropes are present, you can tell she's still finding her footing.

[taliquest]

Kinda feels like Kobayashi was having a bit too much fun by having Mako Shinkenger be the one with a turtle companion robot and dress up as a turtle, six years after she had Sailor Jupiter Makoto dress up as a turtle and hook up with a guy who's obsessed with turtles, and giving them both similar motivations.

Or maybe I'm just reading too far into it.

[comicweek]

Witchblade: Takeru

Written by Kazasa Sumita

Art by Yasuko Kobayashi

[yo-yo-yoshiko]

ToQger is my all time favorite Super Sentai and made me realize all my top Sentai/Rider shows are written by the amazing Yasuko Kobayashi (including the live action Sailor Moon). So if you weren't familiar, now you are! Check out her other shows! (excpet Amazons. I have not heard good things about Amazons)

Amazing yes!! I thought i knew why people loved ToQger before but now i fully understand! I was looking through her stuff last night cause i had to know who’s name to shout to the heavens with a shaking fist(affectionately and with admiration as a creator) and i saw she also wrote Shinkenger which similarly gutted me aaahaha! I’d been planning to watch Timeranger soon but that may have just shot up my list waahaha!

[mangolon]

On one hand I'm very tempted to do this. On the other hand I already wrote an essay on why Kamen Rider Kuuga (2000-2001) is the reason you only see pretty people in TV and I have other things I want to do

[thankyoumskobayashi]

Kamen Rider OOO fans, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure fans, I propose an alliance because we both have Yasuko Kobayashi as head screenwriter. In addition, both seasons explore the nature of humanity with themes of hope and tragedy. A vote for one is a vote for both. Vote Ms. Kobayashi’s shows today!

Previous Eiji Purpleganda: Link

[fourorfivemovements]

Films Watched in 2024: 35. ゴジラ/Gojira/Godzilla/The Return of Godzilla (1984) - Dir. Koji Hashimoto

[haveyouseenthistoku]

[kamenwriter]

WHAT DOES IT MEAN?!

[kamenwriter]

It's baked into the narrative they're all ready adapting, but Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon is nothing but everyone being haunted by the ghosts of their past lives.

one more ep left in the toqger rewatch and i find myself thinking... about how many kobayashi shows have this element of like. a ghost story.

ryuki of course being the most blatant one. with the central narrative of one little girl who died (but her "ghost" is still there) and how the grief from that caught all these unrelated people in the fallout.

den-o is too cheerful to have anything resembling a Classical haunting but "haunting" still feels like the right word for what the older sakurai is doing. this guy who no longer really exists and most likely never will again who is like this unpleasant specter to his past self.

shinkenger has dayuu and the spirits of juuzou's victims trapped in his sword who are instrumental to defeating him. and by the time the gobusters get to hyperspace their parents have on some level already been dead for a while, become "ghosts in the machine," and later they have to accept that the same is true of jin.

and though it was kind of overdramatic & inaccurate for the conductor & ticket to tell the toqgers they were "as good as dead" there's something real there too. these kids taken from the regular living world into this inbetween purgatorial existence and the longer they stay there the higher the chance that their loved ones will no longer be able to "see" them.

i don't know. it's an interesting throughline. and i so wish more writers would take her example bc even a little hint of something like a character haunting the narrative goes such a long way to get you invested in the beats of the plot.

[real-life-senshi]

Legit I managed to convince a friend from another fandom to give PGSM a watch because l mentioned the trauma this show brings.

The power Kobayashi Yasuko-sensei’s writing have is too strong. Especially for long time Tokusatsu fans. 😂

[comicweek]

[yo-yo-yoshiko]

Finally, Jin and J (do not separate!!)! Our beloved drunk uncles, indeed.

[kamenwriter]

She wrote Timeranger and Go-Busters and ToQger and Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon and I’m sad she’s doing anime series now I want her to come back to Tokusatsu.

us: hey ms kobayashi why was amazons s2 like that

ms kobayashi: *sitting in a golden throne engraved with the words “I wrote ryuki and therefore am absolved of all criticism”* like what

us: n-never mind m’am

ms kobayashi: *silently sipping from a mug that reads “I wrote shinkenger too”*