I thought I’d try watching something different yesterday, so I downloaded the first episode of a sentai show called Bakuryuu Sentai Abaranger (subbed, unfortunately). Actually I’ve had the mp3s for both the opening and ending themes from the show for a while, and I listen to them almost every day. Watching the show itself though, quite an…experience, shall we say?
After the Last Friends debacle, I lambasted the cast for being uniformly terrible actors. Little did I know how truly bad Japanese acting could get. Yes, I know it’s a sentai show. And I know that on some level the actors were acting badly on purpose. But oh, it was so bad! The dialogue (“Fight with your DinoGuts gushing out!! Warriors filled with DinoGuts can never lose!) The actions! The expressions. So, so, so bad. I don’t even know how to describe it without insulting the characters, their mothers, their families and their entire sexual histories since they were two years old.
Abaranger was so bad, in fact, that I watched every single last second with rabid interest and longed for more. So this is the famous “so bad it’s good” syndrome. Usually when I watch a show, I tend to stop every few minutes or so to check something on the net, eat some snacks, type up a couple of e-mails,etc. Only a very gripping show can keep me from switching at least once, and Bakuryuu Sentai Abaranger was one of these. I just had to see how much worse it could get, and it didn’t disappoint me…in a bad way.
If only I could get this show raw I think I could become quite the fan. :-p
On the other hand, I tried to watch Code Geass all over again yesterday and failed miserably. Some shows just aren’t meant to be watched twice, you know? The first time everything is new and moving at a blistering pace, so you don’t have time stop and think too deeply about the story and the meanings of what they’re saying, and of course you don’t know what’s going to happen next so you can take everything seriously. One watch is definitely enough for me. Let’s keep the magic alive, shall we?
I’m going to spend the rest of the day listening to Chage & Aska’s Very Best Roll Over 20th Album on endless repeat.
