Hikari Sentai Maskman
Mar. 17th, 2011 02:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cypsiman2Inside a human body, a mysterious power is hidden. With training and discipline, this infinite power can be obtained.
This power is called Aura Power, and is used by the Hikari Sentai Maskmen in their battles against the evil underground empire, Tube!
This Super Sentai was from 1988, and it shows; the actors are generally much older than you get in modern sentai, there's no CGI as we would recognize in the effects, the editing between scenes is something of a joke, and the giant robot fights are pretty much all the same. Now, one thing to understand is that there is a big chunk of the Super Sentai fandom that is very adamant that everything from the mid seventies to early nineties is gold, and everything after that is stupid, dumbed-down kiddie crap with too much emphasis on the merchandise at the expense of the storyline. With Maskman, I can definitely say at the very least that it does not suffer from an excess of merchandise, that's for damn sure.
But how is Hikari Sentai Maskman as a series, without the youthful nostalgia of rose-tinted glasses? To be entirely honest, it's merely okay. The show has two central conceits to it, the aforementioned Aura Power and that the red ranger Takeru has as his primary motivation his love for the Princess Iyal who's being held prisoner by the Tube Empire for betraying them. The problem is that both these unique elements of the story are just underdeveloped; the Aura Power is used for a couple of gimmicky tricks and fueling the finishing moves, but otherwise we don't see much of the intense training and discipline that's supposed to go into tapping this awe inspiring power, so the concept as a whole doesn't amount to much. Contrast to Jyuken Sentai Gekiranger, in which we are regularly shown both the regular and intense training that both the heroes and villains undergo, but also the way this training affects them all as people. And with regards to the whole "Star Crossed Lovers" situation, not only is Iyal and her relationship with Takeru woefully underdeveloped, but its only brought up once every ten episodes or so, so its hard to really connect with it in any meaningful way. Once again, contrast, this time to Mahou Sentai Magiranger, in which not only is Miyuki/MagiMother strongly developed and presented right from the beginning, the impact she had on her children and the effect that her loss has on them is constantly brought up and shown throughout the whole show.
Also, there's a weird plot twist near the end where it turns out that Prince Igam, Iyal's twin brother, is in fact a woman...which would have been much more effective if any real effort had been put into disguising the fact that Igam was being played by a woman, specifically the same woman who played the part of Iyal.
That said, it's not all bad, there are some fun episodes and a few interesting twists, but the show just did not live anywhere near up to the hype that preceeded it. A shame, that.
This power is called Aura Power, and is used by the Hikari Sentai Maskmen in their battles against the evil underground empire, Tube!
This Super Sentai was from 1988, and it shows; the actors are generally much older than you get in modern sentai, there's no CGI as we would recognize in the effects, the editing between scenes is something of a joke, and the giant robot fights are pretty much all the same. Now, one thing to understand is that there is a big chunk of the Super Sentai fandom that is very adamant that everything from the mid seventies to early nineties is gold, and everything after that is stupid, dumbed-down kiddie crap with too much emphasis on the merchandise at the expense of the storyline. With Maskman, I can definitely say at the very least that it does not suffer from an excess of merchandise, that's for damn sure.
But how is Hikari Sentai Maskman as a series, without the youthful nostalgia of rose-tinted glasses? To be entirely honest, it's merely okay. The show has two central conceits to it, the aforementioned Aura Power and that the red ranger Takeru has as his primary motivation his love for the Princess Iyal who's being held prisoner by the Tube Empire for betraying them. The problem is that both these unique elements of the story are just underdeveloped; the Aura Power is used for a couple of gimmicky tricks and fueling the finishing moves, but otherwise we don't see much of the intense training and discipline that's supposed to go into tapping this awe inspiring power, so the concept as a whole doesn't amount to much. Contrast to Jyuken Sentai Gekiranger, in which we are regularly shown both the regular and intense training that both the heroes and villains undergo, but also the way this training affects them all as people. And with regards to the whole "Star Crossed Lovers" situation, not only is Iyal and her relationship with Takeru woefully underdeveloped, but its only brought up once every ten episodes or so, so its hard to really connect with it in any meaningful way. Once again, contrast, this time to Mahou Sentai Magiranger, in which not only is Miyuki/MagiMother strongly developed and presented right from the beginning, the impact she had on her children and the effect that her loss has on them is constantly brought up and shown throughout the whole show.
Also, there's a weird plot twist near the end where it turns out that Prince Igam, Iyal's twin brother, is in fact a woman...which would have been much more effective if any real effort had been put into disguising the fact that Igam was being played by a woman, specifically the same woman who played the part of Iyal.
That said, it's not all bad, there are some fun episodes and a few interesting twists, but the show just did not live anywhere near up to the hype that preceeded it. A shame, that.
