First off, I haven’t read the author’s previous manga, I knew next to nothing about this series, and am not particularly sentimental for Super Sentai/Power Rangers so you could say maybe I’m missing some context, or that I have a pure perspective—your choice. Either way this is a really shaky series. Sometimes while reading I was engrossed to the point of not being able to put it down! And other times I felt like I just wanted to skip through the pages of seemingly forced flashbacks and backstories that try desperately (and often fail) to pump up a villain or side character—literally in the middle of a big battle.
It’s a really frustrating experience reading this manga. Starting off, the premise is interesting enough, but it takes a really slow path to having any real direction. Once it gets going the characters are interesting and engaging, and then the author somehow manages to consistently take those interesting characters and throw them into the back burner to pursue some other new plot line.
Honestly it often just feels like a manga that isn’t playing to its strengths. It’s obvious to me this author is great at characters and their relationships, but it really feels like the author is fighting against their nature trying to force the story to be more actiony and battle shonen like. I think if it would focus on its strengths, play up the drama at a slow burn it’s payoffs wouldn’t feel so rushed and hollow like they do now.
As others have alluded to, the author’s art is really a miss for action too, half the time I am truly lost as to what is happening and the non-linear style, perspective swapping and frequent micro-time skips don’t help at all. Especially near the last quarter that I’ve been reading I’ve struggled to keep a clear picture of what is going on.
Overall this manga is really disappointing because it really feels like it could be truly an interesting perspective on a legendary Japanese series that pleased long term fans and made new ones. But as it is, it’s unfortunately just a big idea with no real clear substance.
