Is Suzette Doctolero Attempting To Do A Toshiki Inoue With "Voltes V Legacy"?

I admit that I had written some bad stories myself which I deleted because they're Old Shames. Of course, it's expected since I'm NOT a professional writer myself. The only way I end up learning is through criticism. However, the burden can be greater on the shoulders of those who are actually professional writers such as Suzette Doctolero. I've developed the guilty pleasure of watching Voltes V Legacy better renamed as Buntis Faib Legacy. We just had a second bed scene between Zardoz and Zandra. There are several love stories put into it. Now, I want to post a question that might arouse Tokusatsu fans reading this blog. Yes, I'm going to be super brutal so read at your own discretion.

I think we really do have more than one set of love polygons coming up. First, we do have the potential love triangle between Eva/Jamie/Steve. Now, SEEEEVVVVVVEERRRRAAAAL episodes later we do get more scenes between Mark and Jamie. In the original Chodenshi Voltes V - there were hints that the original characters Ippei (Mark) and Megumi (Jamie) could end up together. Hyajakuu Golion also has both Isamu (Lance) and Farla (Allura) having their potential ships even if Akira (Keith) has been the preferred shipping. Here, it seems there's going to be a full-blown love triangle between Steve and Mark for Jamie. As if having obnoxious Eva around wasn't enough. I guess Eva will forget about assassinating Jamie (and I guess Doctolero will pull the Karma Houdini) and goes after Steve. Maybe, Eva will encourage Mark to go after Jamie for all we know. 

Granted, GMA-7 did air Kamen Rider Faiz as Masked Rider 555. It was that time when Masked Rider was more popularly used than the Japanese title Kamen Raida. Yes, Kamen Rider would be a combination of the Japanese word for masked and the English word rider. Each and every episode was written by Toshiki Inoue. Last year, Inoue made a major return to Super Sentai with Avatar Sentai Donbrothers where he did more comedy than the more serious stuff. Heck, Inoue even made a short cameo at the end like he did in Faiz. Before Donbrothers, I feel like Doctolero is attempting to pull an Inoue but ends up doing it TERRIBLY. 

Examining Toshiki Inoue to see where Suzette Doctolero may have gone TERRIBLY WRONG

Before Super Sentai was no longer aired in the Philippines - some Filipinos may have been familiar with the badly-done Tagalog dub of Chojin Sentai Jetman. Jetman had a complicated love polygon. I'm still among the people who believe that Count Radiguet eventually had a crush on Rie after he made her into Maria. Jetman's love triangle isn't easy to write either. Ryu longs for Rie then Kaori crushes on him after dumping her selfish fiance. However, Gai also falls for Kaori which creates several love triangles. We have the love triangle of Kaori/Rie/Ryu. We have the love triangle of Ryu/Radiguet/Rie if ever. We obviously have Gai liking Kaori while she likes Ryu while Ryu still misses Rie. Later on, Gai and Kaori start dating but that doesn't last long Come on, almost every episode really foreshadows that Ryu and Kaori will be together. Inoue foreshadows a lot!

Jetman did what it could develop things ASAP. For the introductory arc - we get to know about the Jetmen. We see Gai end up liking Kaori for her tenacity to slap him. We see Kaori falling for Ryu because he's more ideal than her selfish fiance. We see more of the storyline develop with Kaori gifting Ryu this and that on his birthday. We also have Gai who was more than ready to accept his loss. More of Gai's anger seems to be more focused on Ryu rejecting Kaori's affections than Ryu himself. Gai was later perfectly more than ready to let Kaori go. Yeah, I know it sucks since I kinda wanted Ryu to rescue Rie and Gai to return to Kaori. Instead, we know how Toshihide Wakamatsu and Toshiki Inoue decided to integrate a WTF finale. What was their reason anyway? Oh yeah, I think Shinichiro Shirakura also took part in it. So why isn't Shirakura actually beating up Suzette?! 

I think Inoue was aware of what he wanted to do with Gai or what the producer Takeyuki Suzuki (who later had Shirakura as a tandem) wanted. The cast of Jetman is mostly based on Science Ninja Team Gatchaman by Tatsunoko Productions. Later, Gatchaman would inspire the Super Robot Anime and the Super Sentai series. Gai's obviously based on Joe the Condor from Gatchaman. Before that, Joe the Condor had other characters based on him like Juzo from Chodenji Robo Combattler V, Ippei from Voltes V, and Isamu from Golion. Gai's a loner who prefers not to be with the team. Gai also frequently fights with the guy in the red. Gatchaman often had Ken the Eagle and Joe the Condor argue. Inoue knew how to put the love triangle into it. 

Later on, Inoue was assigned to Kamen Rider which I think got overused. There's Kamen Rider Agito that is considered his Magnum Opus. There's Faiz which was aired on GMA-7 and his favorite work. We also have Kamen Rider Kiva. I wonder if Suzette ever bothered to look into how Faiz was paced or what? That's assuming Suzette wasn't the one who wrote the dub script. Kiva did have a lot of love triangles. Sure, Kiva is considered the lowest point of Inoue's career but it still had better execution of love triangles than what Voltes V Legacy could offer. 

Voltes V Legacy has a really ridiculously slow pace. Rewatching some episodes of Voltes V made me think WTF is GMA thinking with the weeknight instead of weekend schedule? It should've been weekend nights and many scenes could've been left as flashbacks. Sure, I appreciate Emperor Zambojil's phone calls but even that isn't helping. The introductory stage is really tediously long. It took several episodes before Jamie and Mark are teased. It takes several episodes of Steve crushing on Jamie while he's dating that bitch Eva. Eva ends up taking things to the extreme by ordering Apable to KILL JAMIE for her petty reasons. It took freaking ONE WEEK before the first Boazan Beast Fighter gets defeated by Voltes V. Meanwhile, the original Voltes V's 18th episode started to introduce us to Zambojil. In this one, I wonder why Suzette even has Contessa as Zambojil's mother. Did Doctolero really watch Golion with subs and found out that Daibazaal (Zarkon) was secretly the illegitimate son of Honerva (Hagar) all along? Yeah, that was so randomly thrown in if you ask me! 

By Japanese standards, some of these plots should start to unfold from episodes 1-20. I did mention that Zambojil was first introduced in episode 18 and he's given more character in episode 28. It's not so much with Voltes V Legacy. That makes Doctolero attempting to pull an Inoue really THAT STUPID. I wonder what Doctolero could attempt to do next. I guess she plans to put more unnecessary intense drama. I'm already finding the whole Big Bert's girlfriend is actually a Boazanian slave spy plot DRAGGED FOR TOO LONG. 

I'd say the whole Steve/Mark/Jamie love triangle might end up with what's commonly called kalandian. I can't be sure how things will go. The original Voltes V did tease Ippei and Megumi but they never went beyond that. I wonder what stupid plot Suzette will do after that misunderstood chest scene in episode 18. I could imagine that maybe Jamie will probably accept Mark AND the two will probably be having sex in her bedroom. An added bonus is that Eva will film it and send it to Steve hoping to get him back. You know, any traditionally bad plots in telebasuras. I could probably imagine a future episode where Jamie gets a pregnancy test because she and Mark did it. I even feel Zandra might also get an episode where she gets a pregnancy test too because she's been sleeping with Zardoz. 

Either way, I must laugh at how Doctolero feels like she's writing fan-fiction instead of a script for television. A lot of fillers are best written in fan-fiction than the actual show. Right now, it could be funny if she's attempting to pull an Inoue. It's because trying to do so might be one of the worst moves she could do. 

How I think Yasuko Kobayashi had some similar writing with Inoue while being her own self

I guess anybody can easily notice how Inoue and Kobayashi do have some similar elements. There's the tendency to have douchebag characters in more serious shows, the angry bitch villain, dropping cast members into bodies of water, anti-heroes, moral dilemmas, cruel main villains, important relatives, dramatic elements, and the finales tend not to be well-written. However, Kobayashi herself still manages to make some distinctions. Maybe, a good example is how Kobayashi handled Naoto as a character in Mirai Sentai Timeranger. Naoto was pretty much her Gai except that he was a sixth ranger Kobayashi does put some differences that make things distinguishable over Inoue. Also, Kobayashi doesn't seem too fond of romances either such as how Samurai Sentai Shinkenger could've created a Mako/Kotoha/Takeru love triangle but chose not to. Many of Kobayashi's series usually don't have much romance unlike Inoue's. Timeranger did have some romances though. 

If people will say I'm vouching for Inoue because he's a man - Kobayashi too beats Doctolero. Kobayashi has done several styles SIMILAR to Inoue but not exactly alike. Timeranger was trying to be as serious as possible - something not too welcome with other fans. We also have Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters which was an attempt to go back to being serious. For Kamen Rider, we also have Kamen Rider OOO which was aired n GMA-7 with a mood similar to Kiva. Doctolero could've also examined Kobayashi's works but may have chosen to still stick to her bankrupt style than do something about it.

I think what sets Doctolero from Kobayashi is how they do things. Doctolero is way too concerned with keeping up with the status quo. Kobayashi did try different stuff such as when she decided to make the Shinkenger cast more likable than the Timeranger cast. I even hear that Go-Busters has better reception than Timeranger. Sure, my favorite work of Kobayashi is Timeranger while I understand some people dislike its overly serious mood. Kobayashi takes extra caution with writing. Doctolero seems to be just writing things for the sake of it like I tend to do. 

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VERDICT: DOCTOLERO SUCKS!