SUPER HERO TIME! Gingaman!

I'll have a review for all the Sentai I've watched up eventually, I promise.  Today is 1998's galactic fantasy story (?), Gingaman!   

Gingaman is an odd Super Sentai beast for a handful of reasons.  The main characters live in a magical hidden forest, but their village disappears (eh, more like gets sealed away) in the second episode, making them strangers in a strange land (1998 Tokyo).  It's the only Sentai I know of whose mecha are rubber-costume monsters ("seijuu" or "star beasts") who change into a mecha form.  Gingaman has space pirates as its principal villains, which amusingly has the Gingaman characters distrustful of the Gokaigers, a much nicer crew of space pirates, 13 years later. 

NOTES
- I usually refer to main characters by title or color because it's easier
- I will mention spoilers up to episode 25, when something happens to The Black Knight

The Basics

Full Title: Seiju Sentai Gingaman
Air Date: February 1998 to February 1999
Series Number: 16th
Video Content: 50 episodes, 2 movies

Gingaman begins in Ginga Forest, a mystical forest hidden away from the rest of the world by ancient magic ("Ginga" is the Japanese word for "Galaxy").  In the Ginga Forest, the villagers practice elemental magic with a force called "earth power" and have been doing so for over three thousand years.  Five youths are selected to be the next generation of the Ginga Forest's official guardians (these are our main characters), but shortly after a ceremony the Ginga Forest's ancient enemies, the Barban Pirates, emerge from a three-thousand-year imprisonment to threaten Earth again.  Following an attack by the Barban Pirates, everyone and everything in Ginga Forest Village is turned to stone, and one of the five Gingaman rangers, Hyuga, falls into a crevasse.  Hyuga's younger brother Ryoma replaces Hyuga as Ginga Red.  Ryoma and the other our rangers, plus an acorn fairy creature named Bokku, are the only ones left intact. (All of this happens in the first two episodes.)      

The Five Star-Beasts

The Story

Both the Gingaman team's mecha (Star-Beasts) and the Barban Pirates' ship (the Daitanix) are living beings of enormous power, and for most of the series the Barban are trying to find a way to restore power to the planet-conquering Daitanix, which is still weak due to its recent awakening from the 3000-year slumber (or maybe it's still asleep?  It's out of commission regardless.).  Everything in our heroes' bag of tricks from their special attacks to their weapons to their mecha to their upgraded forms are rooted in mysticism and "earth power."

Gingaman has a pretty solid Sentai story, basically divided into four arcs with a different member of the Barban Pirates starring as the central villain in each.  In each arc, the specific goals of the Barban are slightly different and their methodology for causing trouble changes as well.  For example, in Act 2 the Ginga team and the Barban are competing to locate a mysterious power hidden somewhere in Japan, while in Act 3 the Barban are trying to execute specific magical rituals (usually involving torturing or sacrificing humans) that will restore vitality to their monstrous sentient ship.  More noticeably, the team of pirates in each Act has a different visual theme.  We'll discuss the villains in each arc a bit later.   

Gingaman aired in 1998, and interestingly is a fantasy-themed Sentai show bookended by Megaranger (1997), GoGoV (1999), and Timeranger (2000), three shows more rooted in science fiction.  I usually enjoy fantasy themes more than science fiction themes, so I dug the premise for the most part.  Gingaman also does a fair job of balancing plot-important episodes between those major story arcs with more character-building episodes sprinkled throughout. Overall Gingaman has a solid 90s Sentai story and themes.  I have a few issues with Gingaman, but they mostly aren't related to story or characters.

The Gingaman Team (Gingamen?)

The Heroes

Ginga Red: Ryoma, who wields fire elemental earth power
Ginga Green: Hayate, who wields wind elemental earth power
Ginga Blue: Gouki, who wields water elemental earth power
Ginga Yellow: Hikaru, who wields thunder elemental earth power
Ginga Pink: Saya, who wields flower elemental earth power
The Black Knight: Hyuga, who borrowed the powers of Bull Black and wields fire elemental earth power

The Gingaman team are rendered homeless early in Gingaman's story, but the manager of a horse ranch meets them and offers them jobs and a place to stay.  Raising animals was part of everyday life in Ginga Village, so the team takes to ranch work quickly.  The Gingaman crew all grew up together in the same village, so they're basically childhood friends who respect and trust each other, except when Yellow's rebellious streak shows.   

Gingaman does a fair job of balancing storylines between the five main characters and the script does a good job of differentiating between the team.  Red is heroic (and a little boring), but has a slight inferiority complex from struggling to live up to the example of his older brother.  Green is the responsible one, Blue is a large, kindhearted goofball, Yellow is the youngest and feistiest, and Pink is spunky and tough.  Sure, that's all a little Sentai-typical, but the actors turn in good performances.  Blue and Green were my two favorites.

Story-wise, Red and Black are definitely the most important, as the two brothers' story seeds are planted in the very first episode.  When a revenge-seeking alien named Bull Black perishes in his struggle to defeat the Barban near the middle of Gingaman, he grants his powers to Hyuga (Red's brother), who had been trapped underground for months.  Hyuga then takes on the mantle of The Black Knight.  Most of the endgame drama runs through Red and Black, but the others have pretty good individual episodes and subplots; I was fairly invested in Blue's romance with a local schoolteacher.  Overall the heroes of Gingaman are well-cast and well-acted, but they can't rise above Gingaman's average Sentai script.

The Barban Space Pirates

The Villains

The Barban Pirates are the principal villains for the full run of Gingaman.  Residing in a large castle grafted to the back of the monstrous Daitanix, the Barban have plundered hundreds of planets, and using the Daitanix's might to transform the planet into a tiny jewel following the crew having their fun ravaging it.  3,000 years earlier, the Barban attempted to do the same to Earth, but were repelled by the residents of Ginga Village and the first generation of Gingaman.  As such, the Barban's leader, Zahab, holds a deep grudge against Ginga Village.   

Captain Zahab and his sexy first mate Steerwoman Shelinda are consistent threats through the whole series and basically fit a space pirate visual theme (Shelinda is portrayed by an adult video actress, which has happened several times in Sentai).  Their strategist, Bucrates, is another important villain who resembles a combination of an alien and a large barrel.  Zahab's four lieutenants each serve as a primary villain in Gingaman's four story arcs, and have very specific visual themes.  The brash Sambash and his gang are insect-themed and bosuzoku biker gang-themed; the samurai-like Budoh's group are aquatic life- and feudal Japan-themed; Iliess and her minions are based in mythology and mysticism; and Battobas and his crew have visual themes of weapons and industry.  The separate factions within the Barban crew made for some very interesting monsters of the week.  The minion-level fighters of of the Barban pirates are orange cutlass-wielding bandana-wearing goofs called Yatotos, and they are among the silliest mooks in all of Sentai.

Given that the enemies change theme and attitude roughly every 12 episodes, Gingaman's group of villains at least delivers on diversity.  The facts that Zahab makes conquering Earth a competition between his lieutenants and that said lieutenants often sabotage each other add some interest to the plot.  I wish Zahab himself did more fighting, but in general the Gingaman villains are a fair combination of interesting, threatening, and intimidating.  Budoh was my favorite, and he totally would have kicked the Gingaman team's ass if he wasn't betrayed by Iliess and Bucrates.  The Barban are a colorful group indeed, and probably one of Gingaman's highlights.

Gingai-Oh

The Action

Ginga Red: partners with Gingaleon, a lion Star-Beast
Ginga Green: partners with Gingalcon, a dragon Star-Beast
Ginga Blue: partners with Gingarilla, a gorilla Star-Beast
Ginga Yellow: partners with Gingaverick, a wolf Star-Beast
Ginga Pink: partners with Gingat, a wildcat Star-Beast
The Black Knight: partners with GoTauros, a bull Star-Beast

Each ranger wields a sword called a Star-Beast Sword, a knife called a Machine Blade (around 8 episodes in), and a gun-staff called a Beast Attack Rod (around 30 episodes in).  The Machine Blades transform into different weapons, but other than that each ranger's equipment is identical.  Also, the Gingaman team takes weird stances during battle, crouching and pouncing like animals.  It's a weird, unnatural approach.  I don't like the suit action in Gingaman in general.    

The mecha fights in Gingaman aren't terribly inspiring either, because the Star-Beasts individually look like rubber-suited low-tier Ultraman villains, and combined into Gingai-Oh they look like a less-cool Daizyujin from Zyuranger.  Ginga Rhinos's car and tank mecha and Ginga Phoenix's jets and air mecha (joining around episode 35) don't look good either.  GoTauros's transforming bull mecha warrior is the best of a weak selection of Sentai giant robots.  Maybe I'm being unfair or maybe I've seen too many mecha battles these past four years, but I felt Gingaman had some of the weakest mecha action of any tokusatsu I've encountered.    

Occasionally Gingaman uses Earth Power magic spells in combat or does something unique like using a mystic ritual or an offbeat strategy to defeat the monster of the week, but the clumsy martial arts and poorly-designed mecha made for probably my least-favorite action in any Sentai series.  I fast-forwarded through a LOT of Gingaman fights.  That's a pretty damning indictment.   

Gingaman horses

The Style

I have mixed feelings on the Gingaman suits.  I like that they balance black and white with the principal colors (kinda like Zyuranger, again), but the Charlie Brown zig-zag stripe isn't a great look.  I don't like the helmets, which don't look stylish or consistent.  As civilians, the Gingaman team look like residents of a village in a Tales Of RPG, but to be fair Ginga Village is almost exactly that.  At least they look better in casual clothes than in their suits.   

I alluded to this in the Action section, but I have a real problem with the Gingaman mecha.  As Star-Beasts, the rubber-suit monsters look ugly and awkward.  When they transform and combine, they still look awkward, and then like an inferior version of Zyuranger or Gaoranger mecha.  Rhinos, Phoenix, and Bitus are also ugly as fuck and feel like the most naked toy-sales grab of any 1990s Sentai.  GoTauros is a cool 6th ranger mecha and definitely my overall series favorite, because it has a cool, sensible transformed look and also thanks to it having no rubbery-monster version.   

A few of the other stylistic choices in Gingaman aren't nearly as bothersome as the mecha.  The setting of a horse ranch is perfectly pleasant, and the Gingaman's allies of Bokku the wood fairy and Mokku the tree of wisdom are perfectly decent mentor characters.  Whenever one of our heroes rides a horse into battle it fucking rules (usually it's just Red) and I wouldn't have minded more horse action.  The music in Gingaman... feels below-average.  Not a great opening song, below-average in-episode music, but a pretty good ending song.  

The Daitanix

The Final Word

Favorite Hero: Ginga Blue
Favorite Villain: Sword General Budoh
Favorite Mecha: GoTaurus
Favorite Episodes: A Warrior's Devotion (11), The Mobile Horse of Friendship (32)

Gingaman reminds me of Zyuranger at a visual level, because of its fantasy themes, colorful RPG outfits, and horned main mecha.  However, Gingaman also reminds me of Magiranger and Boukenger, because the overall production is marred by a few major caveats.  I think that the mecha action, mecha designs, and suit action are both well below par in Gingaman, which is too bad because I like the Barban Space Pirates as villains and found the Gingaman story to be pretty good.  Gingaman is far from my favorite Sentai, but it's worth a look if you're intrigued by its gimmicks or its premise. 

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I'm almost at my goal of 15 blog posts on the year!  Hopefully the grand total ends up around 18 or 19, but I'm pretty confident I'll hit that benchmark I pledged to this summer.  Toku-wise I'm not watching much other than Lupinranger vs Patoranger and Kamen Rider Zi-O week to week, but I might attack the backlog later this year when I have some free time.  Games-wise I'm midway through Shadows: Awakening and early on in Tales of Berseria and The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask.  Also about to start 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors for an upcoming podcast episode.  Want to have all four of those done before the month is over.