It should be no mystery to anyone that I love "Power Rangers" and while I never watched any Super Sentai (despite watching a few episodes of "Chojin Sentai Jetman"), because it is the progenitor of "Power Rangers", I have a healthy enjoyment of that as well so it should be no small mystery as to why "Love After World Domination" caught my eye, a slice-of-life, comedy, romance anime with a super sentai twist...exactly where do I sign up? "Love After World Domination" tells the story of Gelato 5, a gelato-themed sentai team fighting against their enemies The Secret Society Gekko HOWEVER, Red Gelato, Fudo falls madly in love with Secret Society Gekko enforcer Reaper Princess for a forbidden romance. Sounds cheesy but I'll explain more after the break;
Fudo Aikawa, Red Gelato has all the makings of a Red Ranger, however, Fudo is a massive muscle head and a massive dork. Despite his good looks and well-toned muscles, Fudo isn't the deepest person and is in fact incredibly dense when it comes to basic social interactions, so when he figures out that he's in love with Desumi Magahara a.k.a The Reaper Princess he has no choice but to tell her. Against all odds, Desumi is in fact as in love with Fudo as he is with her. What occurs next is something akin to "My Love Story" and if you haven't watched "My Love Story" I'd strongly encourage you to do so as you have two characters attempting to manage their way through a relationship with having NO experience whatsoever...a lot like my wife and I when we were first dating. Now this isn't a case of characters not being aware of each other, they're both fully aware that they are on opposite sides of the conflict but their love for each other is stronger than their respective loyalties.
Desumi Magahara is known as The Reaper Princess and she is capable of fighting at a level beyond mere humans, her combat prowess has earned her a high-ranking position within Secret Society Gekko and the respect and fear of her underlings. However, what isn't explored is exactly why Desumi is with Gekko and whether or not her romance will cause her to stop being a villain. We get the sense that Gekko runs in her family as her father is a devoted minion and her little sister is an aspiring "Princess". I should explain that within Gekko the hierarchy of ranks begins with Supreme Leader Bosslar below him are the Beast Class, humans who've had their DNA paired with an animal and their abilities augmented with cybernetics and commanded by a Beast Class is a Princess Class who commands the minions. Desumi is seen as a character to fear BUT she is very much a girly girl in contrast to her loyalties and the other Princess, specifically Beast Princess who serves as her rival.
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| Fudo and Desumi |
The Gelato 5 teams consist of Fudo, a 19-year-old college student, Misaki, Yellow Gelato, the big sister of the group and probably the oldest next to Green Gelato Daigo Todoroki, the stoic martial arts master, womanizer, and lothario Blue Gelato Hayato (who really doesn't get much characterization) and the youngest member, Haru, Pink Gelato. The Gelato 5 are public figures and their identities are known throughout the world, the same cannot be said about Gekko as The Princess have secret identities and therefore have civilian lives, ie attending school and interacting with general society. Anyway, "Love After World Domination" is a fun little rom-com with a Sentai twist, however the sentai twist doesn't l do much but provide the forbidden romance sadly they don't lean into it as much as they could have. This is probably because I'm used to tropes found in "Power Rangers" moreso than tropes found in "Super Sentai". I wanted zords fights and big monsters but that's not the point. Furthermore a lot of the other characters could have gotten more shine.
Green and Pink get the most characterization while Yellow and Blue get the least, and Yellow has a lot more characterization than Blue and it'd have been nice to see Fudo and Desumi on a double date with Blue and his many women (blue fancies himself a player). All that being said I wish we could have learned more about Desumi's motivation for joining Gekko and whether or not she really believes in them or just sees it as a job, I'm leaning more towards her just seeing Gekko as a job should could leave anytime but with it being so tied into her family she may feel trapped, that's the vibe I'm getting anyway. Overall, I really enjoyed "Love After World Domination" and hope it gets a 2nd Season. Catch you guys on the flippy-flop.
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