YMMV / Mashin Sentai Kiramager

• Alternate Character Interpretation: The revelation that Emperor Yodon had corrupted Galza since he was a child, raises an interesting question: Of all the atrocities Galza has committed in the series, how many of them were a result of Yodon's influence, and how many, if any, were of Galza's own volition? What about his relationship with Oradin? Of all the times he voiced his hatred for his brother, were there any times where Galza actually meant it? And before Yodon offed him, was Galza planning to make amends with Oradin, or was his last stand against Yodon something he did so he wouldn't have to confront his brother, and felt Yodon killing him was a form of punishment for his time in Yodonheim? Episode 44 confirms that his last stand was out of altruism and regret over his actions in Yodonheim, outright stating that he wanted to be on better terms with Oradin in the next life.
• Ass Pull: Galza having been Good All Along and having his Kick the Dog moments be the result of brainwashing is not set up at all prior to its establishment. In fact it makes one wonder why no one in Crystalia was suspicious of Galza's eyes and skin suddenly changing color.
• Bizarro Episode: Episode 40 is generally considered to be this amongst the audience. While many of the other fillers within the series have generally been light episodes with great character moments, Episode 40, though not without the show's trademark humor and plot set-up, takes a surrealist, Psychological Horror route that deliberately plays with its ambiguity, especially with its ending. Worth noting that none of the show’s regular writers or directors were involved with this episode.
• Broken Base: Not so much the show itself, which was generally well-received, but the toy line that the show debuted with was polarizing among fans. Supporters point to the line's overall simplicity as a point in its favor, allowing families to purchase the toys without breaking the bank, as well as allowing the show to shine better on its own merits rather than as a half-hour toy commercial. Detractors point to the lack of interoperability within the mecha, which had been Sentai standard for decades up to that point, as a minus, while also criticizing the simplistic designs that wouldn't stand out from other toy lines.
• Complete Monster: Emperor Yodon is the ruler of the Dark Empire Yodonheim and responsible for the complete ruination of countless worlds. Originally a lowly snake monster, Yodon crafts an invincible mask and initiates his conquests by slaughtering everyone in sight, consuming their remains to become the most powerful being in the universe. Eventually setting his sights on Crystalia, Yodon curses the Crown Prince Oradin's loving younger brother Galza into a hate-filled monster in order to get him to betray Oradin when the invasion starts. During the final battle, on the verge of defeat thanks to the Kiramagers exploiting how his secretary Yodonna shares a body with him, Yodon kills her, telling her he only cares about himself and she was always a weakness.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: As soon as Shuka was revealed to actually be Yodonna in disguise, her popularity immediately blew up due to the sheer shock of her existence and her actress being a well-known cosplayer and gravure model.
• Evil Is Cool:
  • Yodonna, whose arrival had practically every viewer equally in complete shock and awe at how well done it was pulled off and how sinister of a impression her actress managed to to bring out of the character. So much so that her debut that week managed to get Kiramager trending worldwide and on a spot ABOVE Super Sentai's more popular sister show, to the point she got her own spin-off.
  • Galza is a sadistic Black Knight who's unrepentant in being evil and takes joy in kicking puppies, but manages to be cool as hell while doing it. Every scene he's in he pretty much pulls towards himself, and he does a great job balancing being fierce and intimidating while having a few comedic moments here and there.
• Genius Bonus: Takamichi being able to stop a dump truck from running him over is part Super-Strength and part good-old-fashioned Newtonian physics - bringing it slowly to a stop is the very thing that prevents it from picking up enough speed again.
• He's Just Hiding: Galza's death in episode 43 by Emperor Yodon. Considering that Crystalians can transfer their life force to another Kiramai Stone, its possible that Galza's death won't stick. The next episode established this as a subversion; while Galza did perform a Body Backup Drive to drive Jouki into saving Juru, his spirit was too weakened to continue and decided to Pass The Torch to Juru instead as he left for the afterlife.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • A Facebook post in early November joked that if Kiramager created a Golf Jamen, it would be the most powerful monster in existence.^note There's a long-running joke about golf being the mortal enemy of Tokusatsu, due to episode broadcasts being postponed for a week in favor of golf tournaments. Lo and behold, the preview for #35 shows the MotW to be a golf-themed Jamenshi.
    Comment: "TOEI WHAT THE FUCK"
• Les Yay:
  • #10 has a real good one involving Sayo and guest character Iyo Kodera, a Loony Fan of Shiguru's who switches to Sayo when the latter saves her. Iyo asks her out, which floors everybody. Sayo tells her to focus on something that would make her really dazzle instead... while caressing her face and giving her a flirtatious grin. Cue Juru shouting to the sky how dazzling said moment was.
  • Yodonna and Mizuki have quite a fair bit of this in the trailer for Yodonna's spin-off, not to mention that the former has to kiss the latter in order to control her body, with the third episode of the spin-off not even trying to avoid Mizuki/Yodonna shipping.
  • #37 also has some pretty strong currents of it between Sayo and Sena; the beach scene in particular, where Sayo grabs Sena #5 and talks her into joining back with the other Senas because she makes Sena whole, even if Sena #5 doesn't see it herself at first; a conversation framed a lot like...well, a love confession.
• Memetic Mutation: See this page for examples.
• Moral Event Horizon: See this page for examples.
• More Interesting as a Villain: One of the few common criticisms that fans have of the show is that Galza being revealed to have been brainwashed into evil by Emperor Yodon came almost out of nowhere and fans would have rather that Galza stayed as the main villain for the rest of the series due to being a much more personal and overall interesting antagonist for the team to deal since Galza's dynamic and history with them has had more much time to be fleshed out and explored.
• Narm: Yojiro in #11, from his rather meme-tastic movements to his overall vibe. Considering that he generally doesn't act that narmy near the end of the episode, this may have been intentional on the production side.
  • As with most seasons of Sentai, the Dancing Theme has a nasty habit of killing the drama, particularly in the later episodes. Especially in the event of cliffhangers, where things look particularly bad for the heroes, or a more sombre moment takes place right at the end. Hard cut to happy music and energetic dancing. The Mood Whiplash in these cases is so heavy that it's downright jarring.
    • On a related note, The Stinger at the end of most episodes still has the Dancing Theme playing over it. Fine enough if the stinger is humorous, but if it's meant to be serious or sad... yeah, that music really doesn't fit.
• Narm Charm: Well it is rather common for Super Sentai Stances to be this, the Kiramagers' stance is easily one of the campiest of them all, but it fits with the team aesthetic of being sparkly shining warriors.
  • On that note, there was really no need to do a helmetless roll call in the Grand Finale, but it's just so awesome seeing the actual actors do the incredibly difficult poses themselves (yes, including the "Super Sentai" Stance!) that it really doesn't matter anyway.
• Replacement Scrappy: Emperor Yodon is the rare example of a pre-existing character becoming this. After Galza pulled off a successful coup against him and became Lord Galza, many were hoping to see Galza be the true Big Bad and Final Boss. Instead, he gets pushed out in the very next episode by Yodon, who ends up being an ultimately bland and fairly forgettable character.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Juru, in a rather unique example as he accomplished this within the first few episodes. Before the show even began, many weren't a fan of him purely due to the fact that he seemed like a rehash of the same old "Hot-Blooded idiot red ranger with an annoying catchphrase" archetype that has popped up in the last few years. However, when the show premiered, many warmed up to him due Juru being more of an Adorkable character with a unique style of leading compared to most action-forward reds; instead opting to give advice and encourage his teammates akin to The Obi-Wan. The fact that his more hotheaded moments don't really appear that often (usually popping up when drawing) and there are many hefty explanations as to why he's a good leader definitely put him more in favor with fans.
• Retroactive Recognition: Runa Toyada appears here as Takamichi’s ex as a teenager, a year before getting the much meatier role of Yuna.
• Shocking Moments:
  • Episode 25 reveals that the mysterious shrine maiden Takamichi, Tametomo, and Juru meet in the beginning is actually one of Yodonheim's generals by the name of Yodonna. In fact, her whole entire appearance is this, as Yodonna was never advertised in magazines such as Televi-Kun or in press releases before the episode aired. Her surprise reveal gained much praise by the international fandom due to the sheer shock and the execution of her appearance. It even got Kiramager trending at #7 on Twitter, a spot above Kamen Rider Saber.
  • Episode 37 manages to top this to great effect with the reveal that Yodonna IS Emperor Yodon himself, existing as a distinct personality from him.
  • Episode 42 continues to raise the stakes of the situation even further by having Garza successfully pull off being The Starscream and destroy Emperor Yodon, taking his power for his own and becoming the new main villain of the series.
  • Episode 43 goes on to show even that didn't last while also revealing that Yodon corrupted Galza back in his childhood with The Power of Hate, causing him to become the general we know him today. On top of that, Yodon revives himself, kills Galza in a fit of anger, and sends Juru down a crevice, leaving his fate unknown.
  • Yodon straight-up killing Yodonna to break away from Oradin's seal in Episode 44.
• Special Effect Failure: A part of the opening first shown in episode 2 shows a duplicate Shiguru running alongside the team from a distance when the camera pans over to the Kiramai Stones flying in the desert. While this was rectified the following episode onwards, fans who caught it jokingly called it a foreshadowing of the Daiyakun clone that was featured in the same episode (with Shiguru for the first test subject), or a blue/purple Sixth Ranger.
• Surprisingly Improved Sequel: Many have praised Kiramager for being a step-up above recent Sentai like its predecessor Ryusoulger for its likable and relatable characters, unpredictable plot, amazing fight scenes, genuine pathos and - most importantly in some fans' eyes - being able to adapt to the pandemic despite losing out on five episodes (which ultimately became a non-issue thanks to the reasons stated above). It is so beloved in fact, many have called Kiramager one of the best recent Sentai in years. As such, it received the franchise's Tough Act to Follow status.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • Despite being Yodon's second split personality, Shadon only appears in a single episode barring a reference in the finale.
  • Likewise, even though she was the one who killed Queen Mabayuine, and her curse was the reason Takamichi initially sought out the Kanaema Stones in the first place, Numajo was killed by King Oradin prior to the events of the series. Outside of that, her only appearance was when Yodonna used her mask as a weapon in a single episode.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • Some feel that Galza’s redemption would be better either if they saved it for the last minute, or didn’t do it at all and had Galza as Beyond Redemption.
  • Adding onto the above, Galza becoming the True Final Boss after overthrowing Yodon would have been a lot more interesting than what we got, since Galza was always the more personal enemy to the Kiramagers.
  • Some fans felt Yodonna should've been redeemed too and thus would've helped the Kiramagers in the final battle against Yodon, either having her surviving in the end or have a Redemption Equals Death moment as a result of Yodon's death, considering that she is a split personality of Yodon. Of course it turns out there was a good reason for that, as the staff decided to dedicate a whole spinoff film to Yodonna doing that instead of shoehorning it into the finale so in the end it probably worked out for the best.
  • Shovellow tricks Juru into giving forms to some Kiramai stones with the intention of forming a new Sentai with Tametomo as the leader. The idea of a splinter group of Rangers being formed partway through a series has never been done before, but all the characters, including Tametomo, shoot it down.
• Unexpected Character: Gekiranger's Miki Masaki and her daughter Natsume Masaki would be a pleasant surprise in Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger. Appearing in episode 27 of the non/pre-anniversary Kiramager is a happy shock (in addition to paying off the Continuity Nod of the SCRTC logo on Sena's track clothing).
• Visual Effects of Awesome:
  • #14 has the production team really getting creative when it comes to the Kiramagers' version of the famous "Goranger Storm", as they blend CGI ^note  specifically for the piece of rubble used and practical effects to create a CMOA for both sides of the field. What makes this doubly awesome is that Sentai (as well as Rider) is infamously known for rather shoddy CGI in places where it's used (thanks to budget most of the time), which makes its usage here all the more stunning.
  • #22 has some creative usage of special effects and camerawork when it comes to Juru and Numajo's fight and it is absolutely stunning.
  • #33 is flat-out epic thanks to Kiyotaka Taguchi's (a recurring Ultra Series director) direction, successfully combining CGI, special effects, and practical effects during the mecha fights to create a spectacle to behold.
• Woolseyism: Some of of Kiramager's naming conventions and puns don't translate well into English, so Over-Time's subs substitute those names for these. Expect to see both versions used by editors.
  • Juru's Catchphrase = Insparkleration
  • Kiramental = Kiramentality
  • Bechats = Penchants (in Episode ZERO), Muddites (episode 3 onwards)
  • Carantula = Crunchula (going by the Japanese pronunciation)
  • Kiramai Changer post-transformation announcement = Let's Dazzle them!
  • Jamenshi and Jamenjyu = Marrskman and Marrsk Beast
  • Daiyakun^note A Punny Name combining the phrases "Daiyaku/Replacement actor" and "Daiya-kun/Little Diamond" = Gemini^note Similarly punny as aside from referring to the constellation of twins, it also contains the words "Gem" and "Mini"
  • To double down on the gemstone puns, Kiramazin's finishers are referred to as "Polishers"
  • Smog Jouki = Smog Steamer
  • Jamental = Calamentality
  • Drijan is spelt as "Drilljean" in a similar vein to the name "Valjean", due to how similar the names are pronounced in Japanese^note Dorijan/Barujan.
  • Kanaema Stone = Granterstone
  • Magellan = Mixellan
  • Zabyun = Dashark
  • Ishidan (Sayo's band in episode 24) = The Doctres
  • Hakobu = Embark

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