1999 was the year the Power Rangers began adapting the Super Sentai versions much closer to the original. Up until now, they were doing a fair amount of changes and had clear plot continuity. This stops here, since outside of superficial changes to the plot, both versions are practically identical and have stand alone heroes and storylines. This is why for the first time GoGoFive and Lightspeed Rescue are essentially the same thing.
Other than that, as a season it wasn’t good. It was suffering from both not having compelling villains as well as feeling stupid. Rescue Rangers versus demons from hell doesn’t match at all. The demons look satanic, which is cool, but don’t do horrible things, because it’s a family friendly show where firemen come to save the day. There is no sense of death either; every demon they defeat gets sent back to hell where he can be freed later on. There is no reward in victory; it’s all futile. This is stupid; I didn’t like it at all.
By the next year, the two versions stopped being equal in quality despite sharing the exact same content. The crucial difference that tilts the balance is the face of major villains. As I said earlier, the Sentai versions stopped showing the faces of the bad guys and kept them in suits where it was very hard to care about them since they looked like plain monsters. The only exception was the female second in command, and it was only done for fan service. It didn’t mean anything for the script; it was just a cheap way for the male audience to be drooling over bare skin.
What made Time Force superior to Timeranger was having a villain with a human face, instead of some generic megalomaniac monster. He was also given a tragic backdrop that was somewhat excusing his actions and making him a tragic figure. He was also given the chance to redeem himself despite what he did. This is good stuff.
I wish I could say the same thing about the good guys, who had some interesting drama going on, but I can’t because the theme was time travel. Which means time resets and all the bullshit that come along with it. And again they are not killing anyone; they are capturing the monsters and send them to prison. Boring; the villains are always all the fun.
While that was happening, 2000 was the year Kamen Rider was resurrected, better than ever. Unlike the Showa era, it wasn’t rehashing the exact same plot and it had a hundred times more interesting stuff going on in it. Kuuga was dark, violent, took itself far more seriously, and even had a sinister twist with the hero’s journey. The downside is that it was fairly empty in terms of content. The hero getting in terms with his destructive powers was brilliant but it wasn’t enough to fill 50 episodes. The bad guys being unapologetic mass murderers was so fun to watch for the senseless violence alone, but they didn’t have any depth to them. Nonetheless, if you somehow find a guide with the most important episodes, I highly recommend it for the sad atmosphere and the brutal killings that had disappeared as soon as the heisei era began.
Back to the child friendly sentai, the same logic was applied to the following seasons. Same plot, with Super Sentai having some chick as fan service, while the power rangers were fleshing out the human looking main boss with backdrop stories that were often used as twists for revealing some connection with the heroes. This was enough to make the American versions much better and me talking only about them here on.
And no, this doesn’t mean the seasons were great in overall, or the villains praiseworthy. They were still tame, with Master Org and Lothor being fairly 1 dimensional and forgettable compared to Ransik from Time Force.
In the meantime, the next seasons of Kamen Rider were not doing that well. Agito did the smart move of adding more secondary heroes for somehow filling 50 episodes, but it sacrificed a lot in terms of dramatization. The new protagonist was amnesiac, so the only thing he was doing in the whole show was trying to remember what happened to him and how to get back his powers, which was nowhere close as interesting as Kuuga’s tragic story of dealing with his dark powers. The villains were also so forgettable, far less sadistic and they didn’t have a human face anymore. How do you expect me to care?
Ryuki was terrible. The concept of having a dozen kamen riders in a battle royal taking place on a mirror image dimension full of man eating monsters was brilliant, but it came down to gimmicks instead of characterization. There were too many characters and most didn’t get enough screen time to become memorable. It fell victim to the Attack on Titan syndrome where you only remember the way they died instead of who they were and what they did. But even that is nothing compared to the completely bullshit ending, which was a fucking time reset which undid the whole show. I’m telling you, Ryuki and the Myhime anime are what began this awful trend that everybody was copying thereafter.
Back to power rangers, Dino Thunder upped the fan service even further by having Tommy returning as a mentor. Yay, Tommy, the ranger who changed more costumes than Goku’s hair changed colors! It’s just nostalgia grab and it works. Other than that, nothing special.
Back to Kamen rider, Faiz is beyond doubt the best season in the goddamn franchise. It is the closest thing to perfection with dramatic and fleshed out characters on both sides of the conflict, dark atmosphere, creepy deaths, and cool themes of transhumanism. Many don’t like it because it’s too depressing and the ending is a bit messy, but what do they know? This had never been repeated before and will never be done again in the future. It’s the pinnacle of all tokusatsu in existence and should be treated with the respect it deserves. Remember Guyver in my top anime list? Faiz kicks the crap out of it!
On the ranger side, SPD did the unthinkable again and made the good guys more interesting than the bad guys. They were underdogs, looked down by the veterans, and there are even traitors amongst them. Good stuff but it was still not enough to be called a great season because the main villain was shitty.
On the Kamen rider side, Blade was… dull. No pun intended. It was sort of dark and sort of moody, but when you are trapping monsters in cards and use their abilities as power ups, you see everything as a card game promotion instead of an organic world with a plausible conflict. It doesn’t have amnesia or time resets, thank God, but it is also gimmicky and doesn’t feel like it’s trying that much to be its own thing.
On the ranger side, Mystic Force was weird. It sticks out from the other seasons by feeling more like mahou shojo than power rangers with its feminine take on magic. It’s not special outside its aesthetics but I appreciate how they tried something so different for a change. Even if it looks kinda gay.
On the Kamen rider side, Hibiki is the last good season for all I care, since after this everything became a too obvious toy commercial. It was the last season trying to be serious and have a melancholic vibe to it. It even stands out from the rest by using musical instruments as weapons instead of the trademarked rider kick. The problem is, it was too different and the audience didn’t like it. The mentors were too old, the apprentices were too young and there was musical at points. It’s true that it could have easily been its own show, instead of a Kamen Rider season. The toy sales were so bad and the dreaded 2006 arrived to turn everything modern, so the franchise went on to dickride the terrible trends we have today.