To begin with, I have no interest in watching the second season of Mitsudomoe but when I learned that the first ep is a Super Sentai parody, I decided to watch it for the sh** n’ giggles and the timing could be perfect considering that Super Sentai is celebrating its 35th year this year!
To sum the entire episode up, the entire episode is a standard Super Sentai episode back in the 80’s or 90’s in which as far as I can remember, a lot of kids are involve in most episodes… and they did. Asides that it has a couple of Sentai standards such as the explosions, monster of the week, the vehicles (which reminded me of Goranger, BTW), the amount of explosions and along the way, they also did many throwbacks about the franchise!
For example, Gon-Gon Café can be a tribute to Goranger’s Snack Gon in which asides that it serves curry it is also, where the group’s secret base is found underground in which in this show’s case, they did the opposite! Also, the fact that we have quite a sexy Gachi Pink (named Momoko), can be also a throwback that a lot of female protagonist in Super Sentai are gravure idols in simple terms, swimsuit models same goes with the female villains in which at some point, some of them are porn stars. I am dead serious.
Aside from throwing a couple of throwbacks to Super Sentai, they also did some for Kamen Rider (Masked Rider), namely a kid performing a Gachi Kick and his name is Hiroshi! If you don’t get it, well you don’t watch Kamen Rider!
As for the opening sequence, they had quite a choice for a singer! They decided had Masaki Endoh, who sang the theme song for Abaranger (ABARE! ABARE! ABARE! BAKUREEE… GET! UP!) to do the Gachiranger Theme! If they decided to use Psychic Lover, expect a lot of gushing coming from Sentai fans. Also, the opening sequence reminded me of a lot of a couple of 80’s Sentai themes. Heck, the logo screams an 80’s Sentai logo!
As for the Gachirangers, they are a bunch of idiots… and they did a great job in it! Add the fact that they swear that it is the fault of the bad guys at the end! And they are calling themselves Serious Squadron Gachiranger! Seriously, it is the complete opposite of the militaristic Rangers back in the 80’s in which they are organized and ready for action. How organized? Look at the opening sequence for Dengeki Sentai Changeman, which is hailed by most hardcore fans as the best Sentai ever.
As for the individual members, it is basically most typical Sentai teams look like: Red is the leader, Blue is the smart one, yellow is the youngest, pink is the girl and the master of disguise and lastly, Black is the serious one and in this show, he likes loves curry (Isn't it the Yellow one supposed to love curry?!)
For their battle style, I seriously laughed! I mean, they used spiked knuckles in fighting the bad guys! Also, they ganged up the monster of the week like they are a bunch of guys in some illegal fighting arena! Oh, and for their team weapon? A giant magnifying glass cannon-thing! For their mecha, its combining sequence reminded me of Voltes V. Period.
Overall, it is probably a weird start for Mitsudomoe (in which a lot of fans as I have read online are quite pissed with it). But it is one fun episode to watch especially if you are some guy who is bored and decided to watch some Sentai parody that is not a live-action (points at Carranger, or some fan-made parody). Sure, I can watch Astro Fighter Sunred, which is also a Sentai parody, but it focuses more on the life of a hero after his year in fighting the bad guys are over… or what is left of them! Oh, and by the way, the green jokes are always welcome to Sentai anytime and the brutality in fighting the monster of the week!
