Eightranger 2: The Heroes Are Back

I’ve waiting two years for the sequel and its finally here. Eightranger 2 is finally here and it did not disappoint in the slightest especially since I had some reservations, especially since its more of a parody of a niche, nerdy, genre of Japanese film making. Its a series of movies based off of a series of childish skits. How can this even continue? Where else can they take this story?

Eightranger is the brainchild of Kanjani8’s Yokoyama Yuu; a last minute saving grace for a group on the edge of failure. The skit was an one shot deal but after its unexpected popularity, the resurgence at tours about a bumbling group of kids with too much free time, playing hero in the park, seemed to become the defining point of the boyband. Needless to say, there have been many times where the group has tried to burry the hatchet, sort of speak, on these super hero alter egos… but the fans undying devotion to seven guys willing to pick trash in the park and fight over motorbikes has managed to take them from the stage to the big screen.

The first movie, released in 2012 as apart of their 8th anniversary celebrations, introduced a nation to the sentai unit. But instead of meeting a group of childhood friends turn superheroes, the world that these rangers exist in is grim and dark in every way. The Eightrangers aren’t squabbling over who’s going to sing the lead in a song, no, they’re squabbling over money and what it means to actually be a team. The rangers had turned from 2D caricatures of Kanjani8 and into actual, independent, characters of their own being. With part 2, these characters are further fleshed out for the audience to grow and understand.

With the enemy defeated in part 1, the movie introduces us to a very successful and very powerful Eightrangers. All seemingly able to use their talents and final attacks seamlessly. Their new suits also seem like the equivalent to the mid-season upgrades in Toei tokusatsus like Kamen Rider and Super Sentai: overpowered and full of stylish flare. But even with all the new gadgets, fame, and financial security their unit has fallen apart; Red has went astray and the group care less about “saving the city” and more about trying to achieve and accomplish their own wants and goals. This all comes to a climax that pushes them to ask one question: who can they trust?

One can not watch this movie without seeing the first movie. Eightranger 2 picks up exactly where part 1 one ended — we get a little expose of what happened between the demise of Mr. Dark and the fate of Dark Crusade’s leader — but the movie puts us 5 years after the events with a ragtag group of heroes who’ve, in some way or another, become even more worst than they were before they discovered the value of teamwork and friendship. This can be a problem if someone, who’s unfamiliar with the first movie. There’s constant references to the first movie, but without knowing and understanding the lore of this adaptation, a lot of situations can be confusing.

This movie is focused primarily on the friendship between Red (Shibutani Subaru) and Black (Yokoyama Yuu). While the younger four (Maruyama Ryuhei, Yasuda Shota, Nishikido Ryo, Ohkura Tadayoshi) provide the comedy in the story, as they did in part one, this change in storytelling also reduces Purple (Murakami Shingo) to another background player. This might not be a distraction for the average viewer, but for those who are familiar with the Eightranger lore, this can be sometimes disappointing and awkward to watch. The first movie put emphasis on the three and their strong friendship — it was Red and Purple’s respect and patience for Black that helped guide the others back to the group — but this time, Purple wasn’t even a factor in getting Red and Black back together, nor to the story at all.

But if one looks beyond that, the comedy provided this time around is top notch. Purple, while reduced to the background, has one of the most funniest stories in the movie. Three of the seven stories in this movie are all love stories and how each character falls in love and who with  will have you in tears. Purple’s has to be the most shocking out of all of them — I’m sure tumblr’s Social Justice Warriors would be extremely pleased with Purple’s definition of love.

But while there are love stories, there are also a lot of bizarre situations as well. For instance, Yellow wants to become a rockstar and he receives advice from his producer/manager that he needs to learn how to be a man in order to be a rockstar. So, in what better way does one become a man than… watch one of your best friends have sex? Or, Green who legitimately becomes a stalker in order to get Saigo Jun (Maeda Atsuko) to pay attention to him and like him (only because she has the same last name as his idol, Saigo Takamori)?? Perhaps, the only normal character story, outside of Red and Black, in the movie is Orange’s — hiding behind a series of character impersonations.

Acting is okay, not Oscar winning, but not cringe worthy either. Some editing is pretty awkward but other than it its pretty well directed and handled. Maeda Atsuko’s performance of an over confident tomboy reporter makes her sound like she’s complaining and whining more than telling everyone to get their act together. The Naku-naku (Cry cry) scene was pretty funny, seeing everyone in tears over stupid stuff, and Subaru does a pretty damn good job as a conflicted guy teetering between true justice and vigilantism. Though his final solo fight can be a bit cringe worthy (i dont think tackling his alcoholism was a wise choice for conflict building).

Everything up until the final 20 minutes of the movie was great. The last 20 minutes ended up rushed and got really awkward at the end. Had the movie focused on Red and getting the group back together, as well as understanding the importance of what it is to actually be a hero, it would have been 100000% perfect. But, for some reason, the writers felt the need to justify Jun at the last minute, which seemed like an excuse to get Mr. Dark (Becky) back in the movie as a cameo to then, all of a sudden, reveal that Mr. Dark and Black are lovers??????

I thought the conclusion of the movie was mishandled due to poor writing. The whole movie was about Red being the ‘true hero’, that he was the only one that understood what it was to be a hero while everyone else jerked around. That Red and Black were in conflict over this and the betrayal. But an hour and a half of building gets resolved in less than five minutes, where then the ‘true’ final battle happens between Jun and Mr. Dark with Black delivering a speech about how revenge sucks ass and don’t do it because its bad and doesn’t solve anything????

I don’t know. I felt like I was watching the final fight of Star Trek into Darkness all over again — perfection smeared at the last minute due to shitty shoe-ins.

The movie left itself open for a part 3, though I honestly don’t know where else they can take this ‘world’. They eliminated the catalyst of events and there really wasn’t any other “threats” introduced, other than the government being corrupt. If there is a part three, which I doubt, hopefully it won’t drag out whatever crap they pulled in the finale of this film. Cause, yo, man. That shit is awkward. (She killed my dad, but she’s like a sister to me (part 1), but, wait, I wanna stick my dick in her as well (part 2) <– what).

If you like tokusatsu, give this movie a shot. It’s a pretty funny take on the sentai genre. If you like Kanjani8, it’s a must watch just to see the group at their funniest. But, for others, it might not be everyone’s cup of tea.