Buntis Faib Legacy's SUPER EXTENDED FINALE

Before reading this review, be ready for some of my big biases. It's already known that I dislike Power Rangers though I have a much bigger beef with Zaido: Pulis Pangkagagohan. I managed to watch every episode. It was planned to have 80 episodes but 10 more episodes were added. One can make the excuse that Mazinger Z had 92 episodes or Science Ninja Team Gatchaman had 104 episodes Those were the times when a show tried to maximize its popularity. Now, it's time for me to share what I felt went wrong with Buntis Faib Legacy. I did try to watch some of the episodes of Himitsu Sentai Goranger which was worth 84 episodes. The First Kamen Rider was worth 98 episodes. Still, I was looking at the problem with Buntis Faib Legacy has to be slowing things down to SUPER PAINFUL LEVELS OF SLOW. 

Watching a TWO-WEEK FINALE NEVER MADE SENSE! 

Eva Sanchez herself should've been arrested much earlier. How bad is the intelligence at Camp Big Falcon anyway? I was laughing at how the writers' decision to extend Eva's attempted assassination of Jamie Robinson was just plain ridiculous. Any good writer would know how to utilize a necessary time jump in between episodes. In the Anime, a character like Eva would probably be gone with a good time jump and some good investigation. Here, it was really painful to have Eva around. Eva herself was probably meant to be the Masato Kusaka of Buntis Faib Legacy. If so, everything just gets screwed up before she's inevitably arrested for the finale. Sure, she got arrested but I guess the investigation of Camp Big Falcon here is plain shoddy. 

Rewatching the final five episodes of Voltes V vs. the two-week finale can show volumes. The final five episodes of Voltes V (which were yanked off the air by the Empire of Marcos) are as follows:

• The episode where General Gururu (Zander in the dub) warns Heinel (Zardos) about his failures. This would lead to the finale arc.
• The next episode was focused on showing Voltes V's battle with the Boazanian Underground Castle. General Bergan (Oslak) doesn't waste the opportunity to try and blow up the Earth with a nuclear bomb.
• The next episode focused on Voltes V's space battle where the Solar Falcon tries to enter Boazania.
• The final two episodes focus on overthrowing Zambojil's oppressive regime. 

The slow pace was really hurting Buntis Faib Legacy. There were a few changes that could be considered beneficial in Buntis Faib Legacy such as the introduction of Voltes V Tank Mode in action (it was only available in the toys and the non-canon crossover Manga with Daimos and Combattler V). We also got to see Hrothgar have a sword fight with his first cousin Zambojil. We also have the Armstrong brothers tell them that Mary Anne has died. IMHO, I think Daijirou (Big Bert) already told Kentaro/Lagour that their mother had died off-screen. I think Lagour in the original Anime was aware of her death. Lagour had a secret room where the door had a cover of his late second wife. I guess the news of Mitsuyo's death was hard to cover. I can only assume Daijorou told his father about it or through some form of leakage. You know typical overlooked plot!

What really ticked me off was how things were slowed down as always. It was unnecessary to extend scenes like finding their father or Oslak's nuclear bomb. So many parts in Buntis Faib Legacy were so unnecessarily extended that it's PAINFUL TO REWATCH. The battle in space was actually so painfully overextended. Those scenes just can't even match the space battles in Ucchu Sentai Kyuranger. What was the reason behind the overextension then? 

Dryed Mangoez also gives this rather insightful review of how Buntis Faib Legacy is a DRAGGING SERIES:

Unfortunately, the odd pacing seemed to end up negatively affecting the stories. Some ideas rushed and not allowed to breathe, let alone marinate to full satisfying effect. Other ideas feeling shoehorned in and forced. Elsewhere, randomly irrelevant detours. A formulaic pattern one may see on a typical Sunday morning tokusatsu series ill-suited to the daily format.

Big moments throughout the season like learning about Mark’s family or Jamie losing her father or potentially big stories like Steve and Mark’s rivals-turned-bromance or the Voltesers needing to grow up or learn about teamwork. Just a few examples of wasted potential.

Things would get resolved within what would seem like the original one-hour episode (anywhere from two to five daily episodes) and then jump into the next self-contained story. The lack of true character and plot development, instead relying on quick resolutions and instant gratification; again, suited perhaps for hour-long weekly episodes. But not so much for an ongoing, five-day-a-week rollout.

As exciting and sincerely emotional much of the first few weeks were for Voltes V: Legacy, the series eventually and sadly overstayed its welcome. (Which is also very much typical of Filipino teleseryes.) The questionable writing and editing decisions made the show a chore to watch.

And before anyone says “No one is forcing you to watch” or any other #NetworkWarCulture-inspired retort, I like to finish what I start. Especially when I decided to recap this series. It may not have been as expensive as GMA’s, but I invested my time into watching the series and I would see it through to the end.

And it’s because I legitimately enjoyed the series at first that I’ve become sadly disappointed as it wrapped up. It seems like the greater Filipino audience felt the same way as its declining ratings in its last couple of weeks showed.

There’s a lot of nanghihinayang or regret in the way Voltes V: Legacy ended up. At least, narrative-wise and in its editing. But ultimately, the technical achievements will be what the show can hang its hat on. It’s not something that can just be brushed aside because it really is a big accomplishment. It’s just too bad everything else could not compliment it.

As said, the real problem is the 90 episodes, WEEKNIGHT FORMAT. It should've been 50 episodes and a WEEKEND FORMAT. Just imagine if they invested 10 more episodes to try and expand some stories. The original Anime never told us how Kentarou/Lagour would discover the death of his second wife Mitsuyo (and I did mention he had a door with his wife's photo on it), whether or not Bergan had horns (and I feel Oslak's early appearance was anything but done well), and maybe even expand on Baron Zander. Eva herself should've just been a short-term antagonist since she will just distract the show. Instead, Doctolero ends up acting like she's writing a fan-fiction THAN writing a show for television. I confess I screwed up with my Old Shames because I'm NO PROFESSIONAL WRITER myself. I just write and write. I believe I can write better stories with professional supervision. Meanwhile, how in the world is a writer with professional supervision writing like she's writing a FAN FIC (which most of them tend to be rather bad and I've written a lot of bad fics myself that I DELETED THEM AS OLD SHAMES) instead of a TV SHOW?!

Overall, if you watched it, better to rewatch the original Voltes V Anime. The original Anime did have its problems such as running for only 40 episodes. It was on a rushed pace and it could've used at least 10 to 14 more episodes to expand the lore. I guess Combattler V was so popular that Voltes V was unfortunately overshadowed. I guess Voltes V only got Vindicated by History after Golion and Dairugger XV suffered more for big budget shows. I guess rewatching the original Voltes V will help things out.