Spoiler warnings out the ass.
Before I begin, I want to talk about one of the most surprising parts about Dairanger, it's tone. It can been extremely goofy at times, playing up the humor and slapstick to great effect, and yet- the series can be surprisingly serious and at times dark. Our sixth member, Kou, has issues concerning his mother, with his few memories of her being an extremely polarizing view point of both nurturing care and physical harm. He carries mental scars as well as the aforementioned physical.
We have a villain that beats the son he disowned, which is probably one of the most messed up things I've seen in sentai. A father cuts off the hand of his daughter's boyfriend. There's even a few instances of on screen murder.
While other series tend to have problems with balancing a goofy and serious tone, Dairanger turns it into a strength. Now, just to be clear, dark does not translate into serious nor does it indicate good execution or being well placed. But- Dairanger does at times have both serious and dark subject matters in addition to being comedic, and it's done well.
What works for Dairanger is all about it's presentation, it avoids mood whiplash of bouncing back and forth between them too often. We'll get some laughs, then something will come up like Kou's mother, or a tragic character and that will be the focus along with an appropriate change in tone. Maybe one or two small jokes to lighten the mood, but not undermine it. I also have to give great praise to the willingness to give some degree of depth to some of these characters. When I typically see a series with the level of silliness something like Dairanger has, they often don't delve into character backstory or further development, only hint at it. I call it a puddle, they allude to the idea of depth, but never want to take the plunge to show it. While that analogy does apply to a few of the characters in Dairanger, most at the very least get some good stories.
Likewise the somewhat episodic nature of the show helps a lot. We can have a string of joke heavy or dramatic episodes followed by the exact opposite and it usually not feel awkward. The two parter for Won Tiger is a fairly good example. It's balanced, though it leans more towards the serious side with some big revelations, character backstory, and some set up for more plot and character development later on down the road. However- and this is very important- things feel tied up...for the time being. It's clean break. So when the episode right after that is full on goof-balls, it doesn't feel terribly strange, but rather a way of saying we've done some dramatic stuff, that plot line is done for now and will come back later for more. But for now, lets have fun.
And that is what some shows mess up on. There comes a point when the pie throwing or the heart wrenching needs to stop or at least slow enough, and Dairanger not only understands that, but pulls it off nearly perfect. I can't think of an instance of where I would watch a comedic episode and think "This is awkward and trying too hard. I wish they'd get back to the good writing." Which is something I even did with another show I love; Gingaman.
I should however mention the jokes do become more scarce as the show goes on. Probably for the better given the direction the show takes. But it still remembers to pace itself.
Story wise, and we might as well get it out of the way, Star War comparisons. I hear SW comparisons somewhat often with Diranger, and while there are some similarities to Star Wars, it's reeeeally vague for the most part. I might be able to draw a few parallels, but it's no where near the level of say the first Transformers movie, or hell even Spielban. Chi Power has more in common with ancient mythology and a Hayduken than the force. The closest it comes is very early on with Ryo's Dad basically being Knock off Darth Vader. But that's it. Not sure why I see those comparisons, unless someone thinks all mythological story telling originated with that franchise.
As for the actual story: Over 8,000 years prior to the series, there existed three tribes in Southern China. The Dai tribe, who practice Qi(chi). The Shura, ancestor's to humanity. And the Gorma, who had a warrior like culture. All lived peacefully together as the Daos empire, until one day the Gorma attempted to take over. The Dai tribe opposed them and their battle waged for thousands of years. Gorma tapped into a demonic power called Yo, allowing them to turn into monsters. Soon mythical beasts birthed by the power of chi arose to combat this new threat. The Dai Tribe soon found they could control the beasts with their own power.
The battles continued until both the Dai and Gorma suddenly disappeared. Only the Shura were left, and scattered all over the globe to become today's humans.
After 6,000 years, the Gorma have returned. 5 people with high levels of chi energy are brought together to oppose the newly revived Gorma.
For the theme of the show, it is obviously heavy on Chinese mythology. However that aspect is not as prevalent as I was expecting it to be. Dairanger is certainly heavy on mysticism and the like, continuing the embrace of magic much like the previous Zyuranger. But it isn't quite like the much later Gingaman. Dairanger never seems to fully grasp at it's theme and run with it. Sure we'll get stories told and flash backs to the Dai tribe, or limited info into the culture of the Gorma, maybe short stories on the monster of the week, which could be something like how this particular one was feared for its kick but he got drunk and lost a leg while passed out. (Btw more sentais should give their MOW short stories) But that's about the extent of it. Part of that might just be because the Dai no longer exist and our current team really don't have much connection to it. Just to be clear this isn't a complaint, just explaining that if you expected ancient mythology you're probably not going to get it here anymore than you got a knight theme with Zyuranger. It's more visual in it's motif than in story.
Characters.
Our Red member is Ryo, an understudy cook at a Chinese restaurant with aspirations of becoming the best dumpling maker in Japan. He is pretty much what you'd expect from a red of this era. Determined and willing to overcome any obstacle in his path. He's handled a bit sloppy at first, suffering from plot convenience playhouse in being an instant expert in martial arts with no reason givin. (Or maybe all dumpling makers are great fighters.) While he does have some focused episodes early on, they take a good while before I think he gets any good solid character development, which comes in episodes 26-27. In those episodes a character by the name of Jin is introduced as a fantastic opponent(we'll talk more about him later). But he gives Ryu a great chance to shine by making Ryo train and better himself as a warrior. Ryo pushes himself to the limit, and we see him suffer through his rigorous training, both to defeat the crazed Jin and the MOW. It's honestly quite impressive and great visual story telling, with only a few hiccups.
Those two episodes are pivotal to not only to Ryo's Character, but for the series as well, you can tell a lot of heart and effort went into them.
That's horrifying and badass.
Shouji is a boxer and tends to be the jokey one of the group, though never too much so. He was a punk before he gained some focus with the Dairangers, though we never see that side of him outside of a few quick scenes. Shouji himself is somewhat hotheaded and the one most often to go off, which may be a result of his sensitiveness. He has a strong morale sense of fair play and respect, as such he gained a rivalry with a certain group of villains...
Daigo is the most serious of the group, with a gentle nature. He runs a pet store in his daily life. I find him to be the most competent fighter after Ryo. He's usually the first to shoot, and when in close quarters he tends to go for the crotch, which is both funny and sensible. (Though I might be biased as he is my favorite character.)
To my surprise, Daigo had one of the longest running storylines, and while certain aspects didn't click with me, I usually enjoyed any time he was the focus. His story intersects with another character, Kujaku, a once peaceful avatar of the Peacock Buddha turned vengeful after years of imprisonment. There is a tacked on love story between the two, but assuming you can get passed that it is otherwise okay and even a bit heartfelt at times.
Kazu is, like Shouji, a bit hot headed, though mainly only when fighting. He ran away from his home in the country when he was 15 to escape to the city. Initially alone, he soon found kindness in a little old woman running a noodle stall, in return Kazu still occasionally runs the stall for her. He is also an accomplished dancer and hairdresser.
Sadly Kazu tends to not get much attention as the others. When he does get episodes it is entertaining, but sadly few and far between.
Rin originates from China, where before the Dairangers she was a university student. She is somewhat surprisingly varied. Having both an incredibly caring motherly side, but is also malicious towards Kou early on, though not entirely without good reason.(It's still kinda messed up)
Unfortunately, that's about as much as I can say for her. They don't do much justice to her. She has good moments, but that's all they are. Moments.
Something of a focused episode kinda happens to Rin in episode 33. But I gotta be honest the execution isn't good, go figure. Basically a guy scouts her and she becomes an idol of sorts, but the guy is of course a Gorma Monster(great suit design) he drains her chi power with cameras and such. But the two fall in love....in about the span of a week. You can pretty much guess where it goes from there. It's a bit of a shame this is all so rushed to be one episode, because it could have been a great character arc. Maybe introduce the guy and keep him around for several episodes over the course of the series. Same plot, just have it take much longer, that way we can build up a relationship, at least have it crop up in four episodes ffs. But I guess with Akomaru and Kou, and Daigo and Kujaku, they already had enough to deal with. Still, it sucks that Rin got the short end of the stick with Kazu Shame.
Kou was almost an instant hit with me, with some annoyances early on. He's a brat, stealing peoples desserts, grabbing Rin's boob, lifting her skirt. Over all a real asshat...but they sorta make him sympathetic. Kou is rough around the edges but they take care of the more jerkass aspects within the first five episodes of his introduction, and the fact they make him sympathetic from the beginning does sort of help soften the blow of his more dubious actions(and provide something of an explanation).
We learn that Kou hasn't seen his mother since he was 3, and his earliest memories of her are rather horrifying. She branded his arm with an iron, but at the same time we see that she clearly hated doing this act. So we as the audience, like Kou, have a rather conflicted view point of this woman who clearly harmed her child yet she also clearly loves him. So the question becomes, why? It's surprising the subject matter and how much time is actually spent on a child character.
As we move along we learn that Kou is half Gorma, with that being more elaborated on in small burst over the course of the series as well as the situation with his mom. Turns out the whole thing with the iron was to seal his demonic side, so it was necessary but it was still a horrible experience for the both of them. The seal, however, is temporary.
Kou needs to see his mother before his up coming birthday so she can perform a ritual, or else he'll completely be overtaken by his gorma blood like a parasite.
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World's worst temporary tattoo.
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However, While I do give praise to Kou and the direction they take him in, I must criticize the decision to have him hide his identity. I've never liked characters hiding super hero personas away from well known allies or family, and it doesn't make any sense here. Okay, keeping it from the Gorma tribe? sure makes sense. Buuuut it really doesn't do much. One of the villains, Akomaru, hounds Kou simply out of suspension. He still has monsters sent after him and really that's no different than if his identity was known. If anything it would have been more helpful if he just didn't give a damn and transformed in front of them instead of getting smacked around. Granted, it is only Akomaru that suspects anything, but its not as if it means Kou is in the clear. He's associated with the Dairangers and he freaking lives with Rin shortly after his introduction, so he's still going to be a target most of the time. The main villainous trio eventually discover he is Kibaranger anyway and it's not much different from before, so what the hell? It's a somewhat minor aspect I understand, and it wasn't the worst thing they could do(That would be Kou's Mom being fridged), but it was something I really didn't care for and felt was unnecessary as it added no drama.
Byakkoshinken or Byakko for short, is Kou's talking tiger sword. He was in originally in the possession of a young woman named Shoukyou, but she was captured before finally being rescued by the Dairangers. Byakko was later placed in a stone until one day Kou pulled him out and fabulous secret powers were bestowed upon him.
He's pretty fun and has quite the personality. Obviously he doesn't do a whole lot on his own, but he is important. Byakko can also take over Kou's body so long as he's in contact with him, which helps greatly during fights. Also a nice detail is that Byakko talks for Kou early on as a means to help hide his identity, and they do make sure that Byakko's mouth moves during those scenes.
Kameo (played by Jetman's Ikko Tadano) is a childish seemingly innocent man that makes a living drawing illustrations, and hopes to one day work on a children's book. He has a particular fascination with turtles. He makes quick appearances as early as ep. 22 and would make another in 24 until finally in 28 when he begins to properly interact with the cast, specifically forming a friendship with Kazu as he works a Ramen stand. Kameo however isn't actually human, he's a chi beast unaware of his true nature. He requires a Lai-Lai Crystal (not unlike an object the Dairangers use to summon their own respective beasts) to transform into his true form. The reason Kameo resides as a human and had no memory of ever being a chi-beast was because he deliberately chose so long ago. As the Chi-beast Dai Mugen, he was tired of battle, pacifist by nature, and simply wanted to live a peaceful life. He is basically Fortress Maximus and that's awesome to me.
However with the threat of Gorma back, and his new found friend Kazu in danger, he would once again assume his Chi beast form as needed.
Kujaku first appears in episode 9 and would be a reoccurring character throughout the entire series. She's an avatar of the Peacock Buddha, and was imprisoned 6000 years ago by a monster thanks to one of the villains, Gara, who she has a history with. It's not until much later in the show we find out they used to be best friends and members of the Dai Tribe all those years ago. Gara was injured protecting Kujaku, leaving her disfigured. Kujaku, seeking a means to mend her friend's scars, traveled far away to train, becoming an avatar in that time. Early on in the series she is vengeful to her former friend, but slowly over time starts to regain her way due to Daigo's influence. However she is also dying over the course of the series due to the current atmosphere of Earth. There is a way to save her by means of a mystical object called the peacock tear, which can heal wounds and purify the earth. But the side effect of the latter is that it will wipe out all forms of sickness and leave humans with practically no immune system and lead to an eventual extinction.
As a result of this, Kujaku decides instead to use it on a then blinded Gara, restoring her sight and healing her scar, finally accomplishing her goal.
Kujakku reaching her end is quite heartbreaking and bitter sweet. While I do still feel the love plot between her and Daigo felt shoved in, there's really no denying how good the final scene between them is. It also helps the Kujaku has her own story and focus with her and Gara, so her death comes off a heroic and not soley as a means to further her male lover. Although there is something to be said about Daigo partly being responsible for her change of heart.
If there is a problem I have with Kujaku's story it's with her having fairly regular appearances since her introduction in episode 9, but got longer and longer. So 9, 10, 16, 23. Then she doesn't appear again for 12 episodes, which is a pretty big gap and feels much longer. By by the time we do get to Kajaku again it's like "Oh, we're finally getting back to this?".
Now for the most part the ongoing yet still episodic format isn't a problem. Usually when one goes on hiatus another picks up, which is good. eg: Kujaku, Kou, Kujaku, Jin, Kou etc. Maybe a couple of other character focused episodes here and there. The pacing feels nice for the most part. Although Kujaku definitely suffers because of timing. After ep. 23 we get around 4 Kou focused episodes, which keeps things moving for someone else. Unfortunately after those episodes we have filler. I'm not joking when I say the entirety of disc 7 in the DVD set is nothing but at best mediocre episodes, that's a biggest slump to get through. Worth it sure, but what a slump.
Kaku ranga ninja ninja.
Kaku is a walking spoiler and you don't even know it. At first he's just the guy that brings the team together. He spends a great portion of the series just sitting around and being wise, maybe with some guidance but not very active otherwise. I don't at all mind that, it's what I expect from someone like that and it's perfectly fine. That being said, when he is active you know it's important and it's always treated as a big deal. This happens more often the further in into the series you go, eventually to the point of him walking right into the Gorma's home base on a few occasions. There is a lot of mysteries surrounding Kaku and it does at times cause some friction between him and the team. It's not even clear to the audience what the hell is up with him.
It is eventually revealed that he was once Gorma, and he even returns to them due to the events brought forth by the second appearance of Daijinryuu. He ends up being one of the most pivotal and interesting characters in the show, with actions that make you question if not where his loyalty lies, then what his real plan is and how far he is willing to go for it.
So that thing I just mentioned Daijinryuu, it appears late into the series and they don't waste any time with getting the point across with it. Most series might build up to something like this, a great destroyer or whatever is coming etc. Dairanger gets that done in two episodes, and to it's credit it works really well. Daijinryuu is significantly larger and more powerful than anything else thus far, and he's come to restore balance....and by restore balance I mean fuck everything and start over from scratch. I normally don't like this sort of concept, since to me it makes them even worse than the villains. My feelings are a bit mixed. They do make Daijinryuu impressive and good for drama, so I guess it sort of works.
The timing it is introduced is also good for that, as it happens right after Kou's Gorma side has taken over, pushing the team further than ever. The later half of the two parter has Kaku reaching an agreement with the Gorma for a cease fire. This is repeated again later on because of Akomaru's actions breaking the cease fire, resulting in another negotiation and the consequence of Kaku returning to the Gorma.
There is however something of a misstep. See in the writers attempts to make him threatening and get across to the audience and characters that this beast isn't joking, it destroys most of Tokyo simply as a warning. It's incredible and an "Oh Shit" moment for sure. But...it's never really treated as big of a deal as it should be, nor of much consequence outside of the cease fire. So when we go through this again a second time and Daijinryuu is making people commit mass suicide, it's a bit weird. On one hand is feels a lot more personal actually seeing these people, and I can still completely accept that Kaku would reach a breaking point from this. But a mass suicide doesn't quite compare to this:
Looking back, I think they should have flipped the plots around.
Onto the Villains.
Zydos is...dumb as hell. A goof ball but dangerous none the less. He's a key character in the show, responsible for overseeing a group (Seriously) referred to as the three stooges. But... yeah, there's not a whole lot to him beyond that. His biggest accomplishment is to make another character, Jin, more awesome. But that's about it for him.
Gara is one of the more stand out villains. As previously mentioned, she has a history with Kujaku. Originally the two were part of the Dai, but after that incident occurred with Gara saving Kujaku and gaining a scar in a process, the resulting blemish alienated her from others. Kujaku, her only friend, left not long after this. This lead to a deep depression and eventually to selling her soul to Gorma and becoming vengeful to the one time friend she felt betrayed by.
You can argue that it's a rather pathetic notion to make such a big deal about a tiny blemish, but keep in mind it does run a lot deeper from a psychological standpoint. While the series doesn't necessarily delve into that(At the end of the day this is still fairly basic) the isolation Gara felt would have a profound effect.
There is also another reason should that explanation for her long lasting vendetta not feel justifiable to you, but that won't come until much later.
Shadam holds a high raking position in Gorma. He doesn't start off as anything too special, honestly he starts off pretty boring. But the same can be said for Gara. Over time we learn more about him; he's tormented by a lust for power and high status. More than anything he wants to rise his rank and become the next emperor of Gorma, and he knows how to get it. At one point fairly early on in the series, we see him interact with the emperor, never hearing what he says, but whatever it is, was a big deal. Such a thing to force the current emperor into a decision he would not have made otherwise. From that moment on you're aware that Shadam knows a great deal more than anyone else in the series, and holds a power that not even Gara and Zydos are aware of.
Shadam becomes really great in the final few episodes, going full on crazy with power. He also has one of the greatest deaths I've seen in a Sentai, which I'm not going to spoil.
Akomaru is a good villain for Kou and I really enjoy him. He's just a sniveling bratty shit and I found him quite enjoyable relishing in his high position within Gorma. He actively fucks with Kou, taunting him, harassing him, trying to turn to him evil. The only really annoying thing for me was this weird obsession they have with Ako blowing into a party horn. It's meant to be a stand in for a cigarette, but it makes this annoying high pitched "Fweeeeop" sound that gets really grating.
His relationship with his father, Shadam, isn't much better than his with Kou. He's constantly looking to undermine and foil his plans, which is understandable since his father is abusive and supposedly killed Ako's mother. Ako can also get away with all this because the Gorma Emperor favors him above everyone else...At least, until Shadam gives him reason not to.
He dies early on, which was quite surprising since I thought there was a lot more to do with him, and he was a really good villain with some decent backstory a chemistry with Kou. Thankfully, he is literally fished out of hell later on. But it's a good while before he truly returns proper to torment Kou.
With that said, in case you were wondering yeah. He's Kou's brother. Which... is kinda predictable really. I wouldn't call it a bad thing, just not as a shocking as it may have been intended. This of course also means his mother isn't dead, and in fact he's been abusing her this entire time. There's something of a bitter sweet reconciliation with the two of them which has a lot going on emotionally. The mother he thought lost was there the whole time, he harmed not only his mother but the brother he was unaware of, she abandoned him to save Kou but regretted not being there for Ako. And ultimately their family isn't going to be reunited because of the situation Ako helped create. It's quite sad.
Three Stooges are comic relief characters and surprisingly were only in 3 episodes, though they make a good impression. The team consists of General Kamikaze, President Grave Stone, and Telephone Sensei(who has an overly adorable voice). Kamikaze is sort of a jerk beatnik biker dude, or if you prefer, a Banchō Bōsōzoku. He is extremely competitive and has a pretty good rivalry with Shouji. It's not exactly on par with Ryo and Jin or Kou and Ako, but it is good and fitting given Shouji's delinquent background. Also his voice actor is the same as Sambash in Gingaman. This was actually his first role in sentai, so that's pretty neat.
President Gravstone isn't too special. He sounds just like a tired Anagmas from Maskman(yes, same guy). His design in more interesting than his personality, with sort of a flip lighter headstone thing going on. Other than that there's not much to say about him.
Telephone is only marginally better than Gravestone, with a cutesy trickster personality.
While individually they're not terribly fantastic, together they make quite the trio and make for some needed relief in the series, and to be perfectly frank, their final episode is a lot better than it has any right to be, being genuinely heart felt.
Now we come to Jin, that mysterious guy I kept mentioning. Goddamn Jin is awesome. He's portrayed by Yutaka Hirose, who should be familiar to sentai fans as Wanda in Flashman and Dr. Kemp in Liveman. Jin himself is a fantastic villain if only in the fact that he's basically Raoh from First of the North Star.
His back story is he was being trained by a master of martial arts, and during training Jin got pushed over a cliff but hung onto his master. Not wanting to fall along side him, the master told him a warrior can only rely on himself, and proceeded to cut Jin's hand off.
Jin survived the fall, got a mechanical arm, and went on to become an assassin as well as seek challenges of many other martial artists. His trade mark routine is flipping a coin and killing his opponent before it lands. You know how I said there is quite a few on screen murders? Yeah Jin is the cause of most of them.
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Jin also has a former lover by the name of Aki, who is a nurse and the daughter of Jin's former master. She attempts to sway Jin away from his current destructive path. However, Jin holds firm in current status, maintaining that Aki need not bother as he views her and the concept of people like her as a weakness.
Anyway, Jin eventually crosses paths with the Dairangers and this leads into all the great stuff I talked about for Ryo. After Ryo's power training in becoming pretty much Kenshiro, Jin is defeated and is in shambles. Aki arrives trying one last time to get to him. But Zydos has been eyeing Jin for some time and has other plans. Jin is made an offer, sell his soul, do Zydos' bidding, and gain great power. Jin kills Aki(I think) and accepts, becoming the Great Demon Fist-master...but not Zydos' puppet as planned. No, Jin is too powerful to be controlled by a fool like Zydos.
After that though it's pretty routine stuff. Jin fights the Dairangers, maybe something will happen to progress the characters along, and Jin might go through some hardships of his on, but no real character stuff for Jin until his last few episodes...Which feels really awkward. He's injured and is taken in by Ryo. Like living in his home and sharing a room. It's fucking weird as shit. I'm completely fine with heroes showing compassion for villains, but holy hell, Jin is a mass murder, taking him into your home is dumb as hell. The only justification for it is that Jin did save Ryo from an attack by Gorma...but the only reason he did that is because he wants to be the one to kill him.
Aside from that weirdness, there is some good to be found in the narrative. It almost feels like a horror movie, playing out with him having nightmares of turning into a monster and ripping people to shreds(Spoiler, he is). Pretty awesome stuff. They try to pull a "realization thing" You know, villain spends time with the protagonists, sees how they act, starts to change etc. It's pretty sloppy, but good performance though. When Jin finally realizes he is turning into a literal monster thanks to Zydos, he wants to be killed by the Dairangers so he can at least die mostly human, it's pretty messed up.
Regardless of the bumpy end, the addition of Jin was wonderful. Not only did it give Ryo a couple of good episodes, his later appearances really brought out the strength of the team's unification. Jin was someone obsessed with the idea that you must walk a lonesome path to achieve greatness, with the Dairangers embodying the complete opposite.
Ep. 35 has a good moment where the team is checking in on Ryo(who has been injured/cursed by Jin) When the team leaves the room, the charade they put up is revealed to the audience. They're beaten, tired, and clearly no match for Jin. But they don't want Ryo to worry, and they won't give up to save their friend, regardless of how outmatched they are. It's standard stuff, but everyone gets to shine in that episode. It's also a little on the nose, but I always like when we see the team is unwilling to give up and finds strength in being united.
It's kind of a shame Jin is in so few episodes, and although he gets some back story and progression, it's still pretty bare and unfortunately rushed. If nothing else he did make a fantastic impression in spite of that, and allowed others to shine bright while still leaving a mark.
Finally we come to the Gorma Emperor XV. He is eccentric and theatrical, goofy in a way, yet incredibly sadistic and insane. Insert GOP nomination joke here.
He is important plot wise because of his overall power and effect on other characters, mainly with Ako and getting him out of hell. But that's pretty much all there is to him. I think he's arguably less important than Kou's mom.
While I do feel certain story lines have problems near the beginning of the last quarter, I also feel there is still a great amount of good. Story elements like Daijinryuu and the mysteries with Kaku that help keep things interesting. By extension it also revitalizes the others since they interlink at points, and eventually the quality is back overall. The last 6 episodes are brilliantly spent building towards the finale.
Dairanger's narrative is pretty good for the most part. However, there are things I don't care for, particularly with their handling of some female characters. Kou's mom(never named) basically serves no other purposed than to move her son along. She's not really a character, just a plot device, she's practically a prop. Rin, while at least feeling like a person, ultimately doesn't do a whole lot nor gets a chance to shine they way she deserves. Kujaku is the best one we've got, and while I don't have issue with her death itself, it does mean the only truly interesting female character with any sort of story ends up dead. Aside from that, the first few episodes aren't that great. They feel rushed and are rather goofy. By goofy I mean ep.2 has Kaku turning on a TV and footage from earlier in the episode is playing. The silver lining there is the first few episodes do have character focus and we do learn the basics about each character, plus those issues also get ironed out pretty quickly.
Finally the last annoyance is with the Ranger's powers. They each have a chi power: Ryo fire, Shouji gravity, Kazu time, Daigo illusions, and Rin wind. They do make good use of their powers and in some cases they even build stories around them. However, they never address the limitations of them, and I think that's quite important with Kazu being able to fucking control time. They could have saved a lot of people with that, just saying.
Other than that though, Dairanger is fairly solid, with interwoven and connecting stories that span the entire 50 episode run. They do a great job of making to care about most of the characters and you want to keep coming back to see where they go and how the story unfolds. They also do a great job of incorporating all the toys via story. From the acquisition of the other four Chi beasts, the birth of one (Won Tiger), gaining new equipment which is usually built by Rin's Grandfather. (The only fault there was the introduction of their Bazooka, which felt very off) but for 90% of the stuff they build good stories around it.
Maybe I could point out more issues in individual episodes, and I have other more minor complaints like wanting to seeing more of their civilian lives. But beyond that, not much I can think of until the very end.
Speaking of, I think the ending is quite good- for the most part. Again we have a fantastic 6 episode long finale that's just wonderful. Character dynamics are top notch, good twists and turns. But there is a strange mixture of odd and great stuff in ep. 49 and 50. So remember that whole thing with Shadam's mysterious dealing with the Emperor? That's finally revealed in the last few episodes. Turns out the Gorma actually died long ago. The Emperor, Gara, and Zydos, were all basically golems. They're not real. This also explains why Gara seemed to hold a grudge and be affluent to Kujaku's actions after the fact. The real Gara and everyone else is already dead. They're just dirt with some memories. And yes, this includes Shadam. Supposedly 6000 years ago the original Shadam lead a battle of the Gorma against the Dai. Both were wiped out. Shadam may have created Clay golem like beings of Gara, Zydos, all the other members, the Emperor, and perhaps even himself. I say perhaps because it's not entire clear if the Clay Shadam was a created by the original, or something else entirely was the cause for everything. In any case that particular clay creation had knowledge of the others, yet was unaware of it's own fleeting existence.
This is a fantastic twist, but it does raise a lot of questions. Like what about Ako and Kou? How were they fathered by a dirt monster? What about everyone and everything in Gorma, did Shadam make literally everyone? Was it something else? If so, how and why did he know about the others? It was also clear Kaku wasn't clay, so how was he part of the Gorma, did he join the revived version? How was Kujaku trapped inside of a monster for thousands of years when all of the original Gorma were destroyed?
There is something else that may be problematic for some, mainly in regards to character interactions being somewhat questionable, most notably with Gara and Kujaku. Since Gara was a fake all along and Kujaku never really did get to heal her actual one time friend but a mound of sentient dirt, it may make Kujaku's death lose impact for some.
After giving it some thought I don't really feel that's the case. See there was more going on there than just finally healing Gara. It was more so about Kujaku returning to the person she once was. Kind, caring, and selfless, even towards an enemy. Regardless of whether the real Gara died long ago, the actions Kujaku made were still earnest. But I can also understand why someone would take umbrage with it.
On the subject of character interactions and something I do take issue with is Kou never finding out who his father is. Kinda fucked up the team keeps that from him.
With the said, the part where the team finally realizes they're not needed any more is bitter sweet. Sure they get to go back to their lives, and I'm sure Shouji will still jog by Kazu's salon, maybe Ryo will ride by every now and again on deliveries...but it's not going to be like before. Rin is heading back to China and will probably take Kou along, and most will be pretty busy anyway. It's really heartfelt.
But we also get a glimpse 50 years into the future, where everyone is old now. It's...weird to say the least, and kinda sad in a not good way. Although it does give you an idea of what to expect in the next Sentai in terms of tone, it's by far the most wacky and out of place Dairanger ever gets.
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| All your favorite characters are old and have health problems. Yay! |
Also the team trained their grand children to be new Dairangers, just in case. And yeah, the Gorma returns, with a repainted Baron String from the first episode.
If you're wondering what's going on there, near the end of the series Kaku makes mention of their battle being almost fruitless because no side can actually win. Basically one can not exist without the other yin-yang thing. More or less the Universe itself revives the Gorma every now and again as a means of balance, which might explain some stuff like Shadam...that still doesn't explain the other crazy shit.
Weirdly slapstick ending, but probably done because of the six episodes straight of an emotional roller coaster. I'm mostly fine with it. Also great credit sequence, it's made up of footage across the series so it's a great send off.
I do however think the ending will be a turning point for a lot of people. Not the slapstick, the truth about Gorma. Because I can see the amount of unanswered questions being frustrating for a lot of people. That's probably going to be a make or break the series for some, so keep that in mind. I am....Okay with it, but fully admit putting so much emphasis on a twist and raising far more questions than answering is not a good idea.
One last note to make, as you've seen this is heavily character driven. It's unlike what I'm used to dealing with. I'm gonna be overhauling my review format for entire series after this one, because Dairanger has character story lines and developments right up until the last bloody episode. It's absolutely fantastic, but holy hell is it hard to get everyone's stories into their bios without talking about someone else or jumping around the entire 50 episode run. Daigo, Kujaku and Gara are interlinked. Ryo with Jin and eventually Shadam. Shoji with the Stooges. Kou, his mom, Ako, and Shadam. Shadam with the previous mentioned, but also the Emperor and Gara. I could do a spread sheet on characters and stories intertwining- and while it's not necessarily complex- it is surprising, especially since this is following on the heels on Zyuranger. As such, I apologize if things come off as a bit disjointed. That also extends to my images, as my computer's DVD drive went to shit while making this. So there may be some inconsistencies with the quality of photos, as I had to take some on my phone or grab some from magazine scans and the Ranger wiki.
Visuals / SFX.
Ascetically I think the series looks really good. I like the designs of the suits, they have a perfect balance of the contrasting white with the main colors, and the helmets nicely reflect the Chinese mythology the series is steeped in. I'm particularly fond of Rin's suit design, with the tunic like skirt design.
I would also be remiss if I didn't mention the momentum of the series. The suit actors do such a wonderful job with the fluid dance like movements during their roll call and their fight scenes. A great attention to detail here is the all of the Dairangers have their own fighting style. Ryo is Dragon Fist, Shouji Long Fist, Daigo Hung Ga, Kazu Drunken fist, and Rin Eagle Fist. As far as I can tell Kou does not have a particular fighting style, specializing more so in sword combat and sound based attacks.
These fighting styles might not be something you would normally pick up on unless you're familiar with it, but I love additions like that. The fighting itself is also truly fantastic because of the martial arts used.
Dairenoh is a great mech design, I love how it looks like a Ming Dynasty warrior with some nice color to it. If I do make a knock against Dairenoh it's from a story standpoint. I normally don't talk about that here since it mostly all visuals, but Dairenoh never really gets banged up or in danger. My only assumption is that during Zyuranger, Daizyujin must have gotten damaged pretty badly costing quite a bit to fix, and they didn't want to take the chance with the follow up series.
Either way it's a shame.
The individual chi beasts are mostly fine. Ryuuseioh and Houou are very nice and I always enjoyed the wire work that went into making them move so lovely. Jishi, Tenma and Kirin are a bit mixed for me. They all have nice designs but they're also boring since they're all track based with only moving heads or front feet.
Ryuuseioh is definitely the stand out because of it's articulation and stand alone warrior mode. The suit is a lot slimmer than Dairenoh so they're able to get a lot more movement, flips, kicks, pole spins.
It's above what most sentais do with their giant fight scenes and it is great, though still far below say what Gridman was doing at the same time. Hmm, Gridman...
Won Tiger comes out nice since it's a robot in and of it self like Ryuuseuoh. It has seven unique finishing attacks, which change depending upon the day of the week.
The leg movements in tiger form leave something to be desired, we've had better with Liveman and Zyuranger. Not too big on the Kiba Daioh combined form either. It's cool looking, but it doesn't really do much. The only stand out thing is it's ability to launch Houou and engulf it in fire from the tiger orb. While neat, it's pretty much all it does.
Daimugen is great. Loved it when I knew it as Tor, love it even more since he has a personality. He's pretty stiff but that's to be expected from a giant shell. He's more defense than anything and quite resilient, though he can be flipped leaving him vulnerable.
His shell can also open up as a means to recharge a weakened Ryuuseioh, and finally he can combine with all the beasts to create the heavily chi palace. Seeing all the beasts come together to crush the enemy remains one of my favorite ways of destroying a monster in Sentai. (even if it does teleport out of the city)
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Goomba STOMP!
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The Gorma villain designs are bloody laughable. The main trio look more like S&M Hellraiser rejects than a reflection of an ancient evil. Ako inexplicably has buttons all over, including his freaking head...I'm not quite sure what the hell is up with that.
The general mooks, Cotpotros, are bit goofy too. Like some weird cross between a stage suit and a tuxedo. I do however like the mostly blank expressionless faces, it's a little unnerving.
The MOW however are quite fun and varied, ranging from Bandito birdcages, to Pachinko machines, Lipstick sirens, a Magnet, a Kabuki performer, a freaking kaleidoscope, a basketball playing monk crossed with a purse, a cluster of film and cameras. Plenty of unique designs. One of my favorites is Pot Taoist, it has this huge smile and a row of eyes. Kinda reminds me character designs you'd see a Kirby or Mega Man game.
Also, if you're familiar with Winspector, the crappy bird returns.
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That's right Billy, I'm back.
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Now why I do think the series looks good by sentai standards, I will say there are moments that are...shall we say "Quality" even for Sentai. Wire work tends to be more obvious than not.
In fact you can even see it in the intro once they add Kameo.
And sometimes they just didn't think things through. One example is with pull back shots like this:
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| Well it's nice to know Japan is a modern city with sky scrapers, yet has no bloody roads to the buildings. Just trees as large as them and lots of sand. |
Some set designs for the cockpits are also on the cheap side. Ignoring the fact the magical electric ball from Spencer's Gifts look goofy, when they grab it, it often times causes the base it's sitting on to shake, if not also the entire set.
On the better side of things they try some newish effects out in Dairanger, mainly with colored...speedlines? I guess. Basically the blur effect they would later go nuts with in Kakuranger.
Very interesting to see.
They also have a few large items, in particular a giant Ryuuseioh head that Ryo rides upon.
Some of the filmography for the miniature scenes can also be impressive. (Aside from when you notice the strings) Smoke, flashes of lightning, and some great glowing eyes on a chibeast. It can look fantastic at times, most notably with Daijinryuu.
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| Holy shit. |
Soundtrack.
Musically I enjoy a great deal of the tracks.
The opening and ending themes are fine and catchy(though I prefer the full versions).
But the real highlight for me is the in show tracks, which is mostly BGM.
A lot of Dairanger's music reminds me of Kamen Rider Black and RX's BGM, in particular Akuma no Shinden from Kamen rider Black. (As it turns out, Eiji Kawamura who worked on Black and RX also composed on Dairanger.)
One of favorite pieces is the henshin music, which is in the last quarter of 'Mondou Muyou'. It's an incredibly energetic and a fantastic track that goes so wonderfully with the movements of the actors during a roll call, definitely give it a listen. But also check out 'Ten Ni Kagayaku Itsutsu Boshi!' and 'Namida No Mukou Ni' both of which you can detect traces of 'Lonely Heart' and 'Moeru Omoi' from Black. In a way Dairanger feels like an evolution from both soundtracks. The familiar cowbell, drums, electrical hums, guitar, and horns that you would hear in scenes of danger are still there, as well as the slow sombre tragic compositions heavy on violins. But there is also some more playful tunes akeen to 'Little Shop'. Given that in a way Dairanger does sort of feels like a mash up between the more serious Black and more light hearted RX, it's incredibly fitting that they got Kawamura as the composer. His music fits the tone perfectly.
Unfortunately I can't sing praise for the soundtrack as a whole. The track "Ikuzootsu" has a section very similar to the Imperial march, but probably does just enough to not be completely blatant. Although that's also because imperial march itself sounds like Funeral March mixed with Gustav Holst's Mars: Bringer of War. But I digress.
Regardless, it's usually very jarring whenever it pops up, and it's used far more than it should be. I'm sure we can blame the infamous Kenji Yamamoto for that track, if not it's usage. Yeah, he worked on the soundtrack too. If you're not familiar with him, he's mostly known now a someone that copied a lot of music, most notably with his work on DBZ.
As a side note, I usually don't talk about sound effects in an older sentai unless there is something awesome sounding, like Great Five's jet sounds. This isn't really one of those times, but now seems like a good time to mention a quirk that I noticed. Kiba Ranger's henshin makes a high pitched whirring sound as he grows, which sounds very similar to RX's henshin. Someone really liked Kotaro.
DVD Set.
Sub wise I can't say too much about it since of course I don't speak Japanese. But they seem good, certainly comprehensible and not repetitive unless necessary, and they're well timed. I should note they also translate the one piece of German used in the show. "Sturm und Drang" which they use as storm and stress.
The only other thing I can say is that maybe they could have re-phrased or re-worded certain areas of dialogue and titles. But I also have an immature mind at times.
Oh dear.
Moving on, the package art is honestly just bad. It's really cheesy looking and I think it's worse than Zyuranger's. Say what you will, but at least Zyuranger had a background with something from the show and the reverse side had a nice group shot of the main 5 in their uniforms. Dairanger has an out of place pixel like star burst and seems adverse to show the suits outside of tiny boxes. Funny enough I think the BG art looks fine on it's on, and would probably work great for a series like MegaRanger, but not a Chinese mythology based show.
Also yes, I'm aware bringing this up now is a bit superfluous given Kakuranger and Ohranger both have much better covers.
The case is pretty much the same as Zyuranger's, just a big 10 disc set. It works, though mine has a broken Pluck-Hub,(that's the thing that holds the disc in). So something to watch out for, and sadly one you won't notice until after the fact.
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| The DVD sometimes falls out when it's opened. |
They do include promos for Dairanger before the first episode on the first disc, which is nice. The audio seems be of significantly lower quality than the show itself, almost like a pillow is placed over the speaker, this also applies to the Next episode previews for the first 9 episodes. I did some digging and found out it's an issue that existed when they were originally put together in 1992. Toei had some weird audio problems but only for the previews.
Strangely no preview for Kakuranger. I guess they weren't certain if they were going to do it at the time. Probably want to see how things sell before hinting at anything.
All the episodes are listed within the case like with Zyuranger, and like with that DVD, I really wish they would do a different layout. It's annoying popping out a disc just to read the episode guide. Don't put the titles behind the discs. If you're going to cover anything up make it the still shot photos. I understand making the inside look good with all those screen grabs, but the layout is inconvenient.
This side almost got it right, but they still put part of the episode list behind the DVD. Just move the photo of the rangers on their bikes! Bah.
Final thoughts
In conclusion I really enjoy this set.
Dairanger is a really good series that can often rise into great. It's one of the better Sentais I've watched, and arguably one of the best of the 90s, though that still remains to be seen on my end. If you've been debating on which of Shout's Sentai releases to get, or if you've been wondering if you should pick this particular one up, I would highly recommend doing so.
If you're still on the fence, ShoutFactory has the entire series up for viewing.
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| Fuck Konami. |
What is the best 90s super sentai?
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