I have abandoned all semblance of order to this meme by now

[pockysquirrel]

 punkpinkpower asked me to post about my least favorite season of PR and why I dislike it. 

Disclaimer #1: I enter into this post fully aware of the fact that this is a highly unpopular opinion and that I may be shot or otherwise flagellated for expressing it. 

Disclaimer #2: My feels for PR-related things are notoriously fickle, and if ever I decide to do another rewatch of things, this opinion may change drastically. Given that the roster of things in PR I used to hate and now adore includes Rocky, Justin, Lost Galaxy in its entirety, and Ji, anything's possible.

OK. That much being said, I...really did not much care for Ninja Storm.

...I know, right?!

To be perfectly honest, I went into it expecting to like it a lot more than I ended up liking it. It's got a generally good reputation in the fandom, and there was a lot of slash fic. My expectations were pretty high. And at the end of the day, I can see objectively why people like it so much. There is a lot worth liking in it. I like Cam. I like the witty, snarky, genre-savvy dialogue. I dug the finale, and Marah and Kapri's epic triple-cross. Fuck, I even liked the suits. It just, for some reason, wasn't for me.

Even when I was doing the season recap posts, I struggled to quantify why I had such a hard time with Ninja Storm. All I knew was that I felt like I was slogging through the episodes. Watching them felt like a chore. I ended up watching some other things out of order and then going back to finish NS later, just so I wouldn't have to watch it all in one shot. I felt uninspired by it. There weren't any characters I cared enough to write fic about (Even Cam! Despite the fact that I adore him!) and there weren't any pairings I saw enough chemistry in to ship. I consequently didn't know what to do with myself - or what I was missing - and I felt...well, bored. Ninja Storm is presently alone in eliciting this reaction from me. As anyone in the fandom who has ever met me or read anything I have to say about the series, I tend to get very heated about my PR. There are seasons of the show that inspire me to fits of full-on flaming nerd rage (I'm looking at you, Operation Overdrive. With honorable mention to Mystic Force, Lost Galaxy and occasionally Megaforce.) But regardless of how angry those seasons make me, I still get inspired by them, and it comes out as headcanon and shippy feels and fic. I have written fic about ALL the PR seasons that piss me off. But I've written none for NS, because all I feel for it is apathy.

(Shit, one of my top 5 - if not top 3 - PR episodes OF ALL TIME came from Overdrive. I can think of only one from NS I even found memorable.)

So that's pretty much the psychology behind why NS and I are not friends. In terms of actual specific beefs...
- I got real tired of the extreme sports theme, real quick.
- I am not half as enamored of the NS villains as a lot of people, and actually found them a tad annoying.
- If you read the mentor ranking post, you know I have mad respect for Sensei Watanabe. But I simply CANNOT take him seriously as a poorly animated CGI guinea pig.

...And in conclusion, I hope this meets the 'no bashing' caveat in the post request, as I suspect this may be the most negative PR post I've ever made. :/ 

Comments

[purplestripe66]

I must say I agree with you on the villains. Lothor is PASSABLE on his good days, but he had much more potential than they gave him. The only one I really liked was Zeltrax. And Motodrone drove me crazy for some reason.

I actually liked the sports, it made me want to get out and do stuff, which I suspect may have been the point. But of course I didn't, cause I can't even ride a bike. Sad. One things I loved about the season was all the green. In like a quarter of the eps they are surrounded by green landscape. It was beautiful. I hated that Tori was the only girl, obviously, but I loved that she was strong and outspoken.

And even though I've already said it, there is nothing bashy about this post.

[tsukino_akume]

I respectfully disagree with your opinions, because I adored Ninja Storm from the moment it aired and always have. I can understand your reasons, though. But I mostly wanted to comment that if anyone tries to give you shit for not being into NS, I will let them have it. Because part of being a good Fandom is respecting each other's opinions.

Besides, there's always something to love in PR!

Love! ♥

[punkpinkpower]

Actually this is exactly what I expected, lol.

NS is one of my top 3 favs, tied right next to the other two campy ninja seasons, Samurai and Jungle Fury, which I guess really says more about me as a person than why I watch PR lol.

I can understand your reasoning, though. It's not for everyone. OO was not for me at all, and I think I'd have the same opinions of RPM that you have of NS. Different people like different things!

[pockysquirrel]

But...I love both Samurai AND Jungle Fury. :|

I think this post has made me decide I need to attempt a rewatch of NS and see what happens.