Otenki Sentai How Weather

お天気戦隊ハウウェザー

Company: R45° / Sousakubou
Based on: Sentai Parody
Released: 2011.01.15
Official site: http://www.how-weather.com/


Otenki Sentai How Weather is a sentai parody in which all characters are based on different sorts of weather. On the good side we have Hare (clear weather), Ame (rain), Yuki (snow), Kumori (clouded), and Rai (lightning). Together they form the group "How Weather" and fight the evil organization Chuuihou (wheather warning). The entire organisation is actually only three people though: Hyou and Arare (hail) and Taifuu (typhoon).

In the first track the narrator explains that "How weather" is a telivision program aired on sunday morning, and that we should see how everyone is doing. Eacht track is dedicated to one of the characters, and one to Chuuihou. Don't expect any real sentai action though, instead the tracks are about the daily lives of all of the characters.

And the characters are what makes this CD brilliant. Hare (CV: Sakurai Takahiro) is a lovable egoistic hero. In his track he caught a cold (because he slept with only his underwear on in the middle of the winter) and no-one really wants to help him because they think he deserved it. Rai (CV: Terashima Takuma) like an impulsive kid. He works part time at a family restaurant, and his adventure is all about him not liking curry and running away from home.

Ame (CV: Toriumi Kousuke) is a major narcissist, and seems to enjoy getting scolded for some reason. His episode is all about, well, him being a narcissist. Kumori (CV: Suwabe Junichi) is a complete otaku, and is always busy playing online games (his latest being Final Dragon Fantasy Quest Online). He is usually muttering complaints in the background, but in his own track he is making entire monologues out of it. His story is about meeting someone from an online game in real life.

Yuki (CV: Hirakawa Daisuke) is like the mother of the family and usually act like housewife. He is usually sweet, but when he gets annoyed his personality switches completely. He is tends to make more severe remarks against Ame. Yuki is bloodrelated to Hyou and Arare, which is the reason why everyone is so friendly with each other. In his story there is a time sale in the supermarket, and absolutely nothing will get in the way of him going there. Not even a properly scheduled battle with Chuuihou.

In Chuuihou their story all of them go to a family restaurant for dinner (the one where Rai works). Hyou and Arare (CV: Toyonaga Toshiyuki & Ichiki Mitsuhiro) act like a bunch of high school girls worrying about stuff like diets, while Taifuu (CV: Ookawa Tohru) is as weak to their manipulation as ever.

As you can see, there is no actual action going on what so ever, the narrator even comments on this at the end. While they are supposed to be fighting everyone is getting along just fine. Taifuu even writes an overly polite letter to announce that they are coming when they do come to fight, and brings proper gifts when visiting. All of the characters are interestingly quirky, and the result is a lovable chaos.  I expected Hirakawa-san to act like a housewife based on his character description, but I didn't expect the switch to a more S side when annoyed, nor the voice drop accompanying it so that made for a nice surprise and a happy me.

There is a secret freetalk track, in which everyone talks about the CD and something to do with the weather, as well as their hopes for future installments in the series. Everything is going pretty normal untill Ichiki-san his turn, by which thime the rest is laughing so hard that he can't get on with his talk. He also does a final bai-bai, after which the recording simply continues ( ´艸｀)ﾑﾌﾟﾌﾟ


Conclusion
I'm not entirely sure my enthusiasm for this series is showing in this review. BUT I LOVE IT. From how it fails to be a proper sentai story to all of the characters, to the seiyuu and everything in between. I picked this up because there is a new CD (vol.4) coming soon, but this together with re-listening Hero Academy-J just might have sparked a new love for sentai parodies.