Ultra Star God GranSazer

[areaseven]

Chouseishin GranSazer (超星神グランセイザー,)

General Entertainment/TV Tokyo/Konami/Toho, 2003-2004

U.S. Distributor Pending

Running Time: 25 minutes per episode

Not Rated (TV-Y7FV). Contains martial arts violence.

"Souchaku!" ("Equip!")

Synopsis

Many billions of years ago, Earth was inhabited by a human race far more advanced than we could ever imagine. Then one day, alien forces - fearful of the human race's technology - indiscriminately attacked Earth. The humans launched their ultimate weapons known as "Ultra Star Gods" to counterattack the invaders, but in the end, not even these weapons could save them from total annihilation. The human race became extinct, but eventually made a comeback eons later.

Fast forward to the present day: delivery boy Tenma Kudou is hired to send an important parcel to an archaeologist who is in the middle of discovering an important relic when an intruder at the excavation site attacks and abducts him. During his abduction, Tenma discovers extraordinary abilities hidden within him, transforming him into Sazer-Tarious. Soon, he finds himself in the middle of a war between GranSazer tribes that have returned from extinction.

Lowdown

For decades, sci-fi fans have associated tokusatsu (the Japanese word for "special effects", but the term is commonly used for live-action hero and monster shows) with Toei's sentai and Kamen Rider shows, Toho's Godzilla movies and Tsuburaya's Ultraman franchises. Enter: Konami - one of the world's largest videogame franchises. In a surprising turn of events, they've decided to compete with Toei in the sentai wars with Chouseishin GranSazer.

The first episode has a very lengthy intro - perhaps too long to the point where one has the urge to change the channel. Nothing much happens other than Tenma getting his ass whipped by one chick (Mika "Sazer-Mithras" Shidou) and then another (Ryoko "Sazer-Velsou" Amemiya).

For the most part, GranSazer has a lot of catchy CG effects, but nowhere near the same level as Kamen Rider 555. Not even the Matrix-style camera angles are all that. Some of the GranSazer outfits look pretty tight. Sazer-Mithras, on the other hand, look a bit portly compared to Toei's sentai girls. At least the kung-fu fight scenes are interesting to watch.

Nice try, Konami, but Toei still makes better tokusatsu material. Maybe in a few episodes, GranSazer will improve on overall quality.

Rating: C

Links

Konami's Official Chouseishin GranSazer Homepage (Japanese)

Toho's Official Chouseishin GranSazer Homepage (Japanese)

TV Tokyo's Official Chouseishin GranSazer Homepage (Japanese)

Edited March 23, 2011 by areaseven

[areaseven]

Here's a pic I found in Uchuusen magazine. Talk about bland robot designs.

[Ali Sama]

no. sorry, I like this show, it is much better then the other sentai showes currebntky offered on tv,. Go see more episodes before you revrew, honeslty, a shwo hat is 27+ eps should not be reviewd with just 1-4 eps.

[areaseven]

(Translated in English and edited for grammatical content)

No. Sorry,  I like this show. It is much better then the other sentai shows currently offered on TV. Go see more episodes before you review, honestly; a show that is 27+ eps should not be reviewed with just 1-4 eps.

FYI, I went through all 27 of the current episodes and either 1) fell asleep through each episode, 2) switched to Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger or Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, or 3) dusted off my computer. Hell, I even think watching Windows XP defragment my hard drives is more action-packed than GranSazer.

Edited May 16, 2004 by areaseven

[areaseven]

There are, however, four redeeming points of GranSazer:

Edited June 5, 2006 by areaseven

[Ali Sama]

(Translated in English and edited for grammatical content)

No. Sorry,  I like this show. It is much better then the other sentai shows currently offered on TV. Go see more episodes before you review, honestly; a show that is 27+ eps should not be reviewed with just 1-4 eps.

FYI, I went through all 27 of the current episodes and either 1) fell asleep through each episode, 2) switched to Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger or Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, or 3) dusted off my computer. Hell, I even think watching Windows XP defragment my hard drives is more action-packed than GranSazer.

Nice try, Konami, but Toei still makes better tokusatsu material. Maybe in a few episodes, GranSazer will improve on overall quality

i

did yous ee ep 27 raw? casu et;s nto fansubbed yet.

is a good site for info on this and other shows

[Nightbat]

There are, however, four redeeming points of GranSazer:

Now he tells us

I'll take the one with the dark hair and the costume on

Edited May 17, 2004 by Nightbat®

[azrael]

I'll have to agree with A7 on this one. Gransazer suffers from problems, which Konami hopefully is learning when making a TV-show.

First off, 12 heros. That's a lot of people. And right about the time they introduced the Water tribe, I started to see less and less of certain characters. That's a bad thing. Especially if their suppose to be primary characters (although some were, the feeling of the show eventually pushed them into supporting roles and gave them less screen time). Kamen Rider Ryuki did it better. The 13 riders in there were not buddies. They were suppose to eventually eliminate each other so that put a wedge into the relationship between the 13. Twelve "primary" heros are had to juggle with. After 27 episodes, I see that as a real problem.

Secondly, we are on what....the 3rd set of villians? It would be nice if all of them were actually part of or controlled by a central figure. At this point, I see each villian acting alone which has made things slightly confusing. Sentai has their "monster of the week". Gransazer has their "villian of the week".

Thirdly, action sequences. Their ok. Interesting but ok. And when I say interesting I mean, do the stunt-men/women under rehersh the fight scene? In episode 22 (or was it 23), Logia and Gorbion were fighting. The gorbian stuntman's hands went into a block and held there for a bit of time (I mean about 1.5-2 seconds before the hit came). Regardless of how long he held the block, it was enough for me to notice. I went back and noticed the rest of the fight sequences had similar instances. Although I'm not sure of whether or not the costumes are just a tad too restrictive, the fight sequences look slowed down. If you're gonna make it flashy, put some more speed into those fights.

Lastly, story. This follows point #2 but really, what is the point of Gransazer? Are we just going to fight "villians of the week" or is there something that's suppose to be something governing this story besides there are a whole bunch of aliens that want to do unspeakable things to Earth and only the Gransazers can fight them? With Dekaranger, we know the "main villian" is just playing his cards with the Dekarangers yet the Dekarangers still need to piece together the clues. With Kamen Rider Blade, we know the central point is they need to reseal the Undead and no matter the price, their gonna have to fight. With Gransazer, I really don't see a real point to the series. And we are on episode 32. If there is a point to this, you better make it clear.

But that's my opinion of Gransazer.

[Graham]

I absolutely refuse to watch any show which has such silly loking mecha.

Graham

[bake_art]

I absolutely refuse to watch any show which has such silly loking mecha.

Graham

ummm... what about macross 7?

[Ali Sama]

I absolutely refuse to watch any show which has such silly loking mecha.

Graham

ummm... what about macross 7?

it should be silly looking mehca that he does not like.

[Dangaioh]

There are, however, four redeeming points of GranSazer:

Now he tells us

I'll take the one with the dark hair and the costume on

while you tke them with the costume on, i'll take them with the costume off.

[Anubis]

There are, however, four redeeming points of GranSazer:

Now he tells us

I'll take the one with the dark hair and the costume on

while you tke them with the costume on, i'll take them with the costume off.

Four good points indeed. Hotties all 4 of the are. Especially the blue one on the right, and the dark purple one.

The mecha on the other hand look like the lower tier rejects from G-Gundam.

Edited May 17, 2004 by Anubis

[Nightbat]

while you tke them with the costume on, i'll take them with the costume off.

ofcourse!

They'll be naked by the time I'm done anyway

[Graham]

I absolutely refuse to watch any show which has such silly loking mecha.

Graham

ummm... what about macross 7?

What about Macross 7? Lots of great looking mecha there, VF-11C, Full Armored VF-11C, VF-11D, VF-17S, VF-17D, VF-19F, VF-19S, VF-22S.

Graham

[bake_art]

I absolutely refuse to watch any show which has such silly loking mecha.

Graham

ummm... what about macross 7?

What about Macross 7? Lots of great looking mecha there, VF-11C, Full Armored VF-11C, VF-11D, VF-17S, VF-17D, VF-19F, VF-19S, VF-22S.

Graham

lol

Graham, methinks someone's employing selective memory