Sunday, January 26, 2014

Abaranger and Kyoryuger : two dinosaur sentai series that have much more in common than that





Abaranger and Kyoryuger, being both dinosaur themed sentai series, had obviously a their dinosaur theme in common. That said, the amazing thing is that both series have much more in common than merely that motif.
This post is gonna show how much in common both shows have :

Heroes

Both series have the heroes having very diverse backgrounds.

Red : Abared and Kyoryured have of course plenty of common elements : both are very optimistic leaders, who have a deep trust on their comrades, even when they seem reluctant. Both have also in their show a very important family member too : Ryouga has his nice/ adoptive daughter, Daigo his dad Dantetsu. Another striking element is that both of them have a Red-specific upgrade giving them special powers, with Abared becoming Abaremax thanks to Blue and Yellow's DinoGuts, and as such is able to fight his enemies in special dimensions, and Kyoryured, thanks to Gabutyra, becomes Kyoryured de Carnival, and is able to use the Zyudenchi in a similar way as Kyoryujin.

The relationship between Ian and Daigo has similarities with the one between Yukito and Ryouga : Ian and Yukito seem to mock their Red partner's behaviour as stupid, but are in fact very fond of him precisely because of that.

Both Nossan and Ryouga are uncles and father figures of a little girl (Nossan with Rika, Ryouga with Mai)

Both series have a female ranger who is a technology genius (Ranru/ Abareyellow, Yayoi Ulshade/Kyoryuviolet II)

Amy/ Kyoryupink  and Yukito / Abareblue are both from a rich family, and both work as employees in a restaurant (in Abaranger, all rangers do so)

Both series have an important high school character : Souji/ Kyoryugreen and Emiri Imanaka

Torin/Kyoryusilver and Asuka/ Abareblack have plenty of common elements which are :
- Both are non human : Torin as a former Deboth, Asuka as a Ryujin (while human looking, he's still non human)
- Both were regular characters, but during a time, weren't able to become rangers : Torin wasn't able to become Kyoryusilver until the November episodes, and Asuka, at the beginning of Abaranger, couldn't become Abareblack
- Both, as a result, are tormented by weak self esteem
- Both were involved in the fight against the villain group much earlier than the regular rangers :
- Both have a dark past: Torin as a former Deboth, Asuka, as the first wearer of the Dark armor
- Both have a mentor role towards the other rangers, explaining the context of the fight, and giving them their henshin devices
- Both, despite being mentor figures, are not patronizing towards their fellow rangers, but more grateful and even feeling that they are learning from them
- Both have a Brachiosaurus as a partner : and in both cases, the Brachiosaurus is a father figure towards the other Dino mechas (and even, in a way, to their partners)
- Both have family among the enemy group: Chaos is Torin's brother : Jeanne and Lije are Asuka's wife and daughter
- Both have been in situations when they were fighting the heroes against their will, under an evil influence: Torin when brainwashed by Chaos and Candelilla, Asuka, when he wore the Dark armor.

Allies 

- Both series have family members of the main heroes who become major allies of the heroes and playing key roles in the story : in Abaranger, Asuka's wife Mahoro (as the one who destroyed the evil armor and as a spy withing the Evolian,) and daughter (the mysterious girl was a very important ally, and once Dezumozorya and the other Evolian decided to get rid of Abarekiller, Lijewel did everything she could to protect him and had a key role in making him become the ally of the other Abarangers) ; in Kyoryuger, Daigo's father, Dantetsu is a key ally, searching for the special amber gems which will bring back to life Bragigas, he helped his son in many key moments in the  series, often saving his life, preparing him to Torin's real identity, and eventually becoming Kyoryusilver; even the final plot when he killed Torin was in fact a plan to help him, with Torin fighting within the Deboth hell; besides, Nossan's sister Yuko becomes Kyoryucyan for the final big fight.
- In both series, a plot involve a family member of a ranger seemingly joining the villains and fight the heroes, (Dantetsu in Kyoryuger (father of Daigo/Kyoryured), Mahoro in Abaranger (wife of Asuka/Abareblack) : and in both cases, that family member sends important info to the hero through a key physical contact with each other, allowing their spirits to meet,  during a big showdown.

Weapons, mechas and use of the dinosaur theme 
  
Because of their dino theme, Abaranger and Kyoryuger have of course both dinosaur themed weapons. Moreover, the rangers have a "supermode" involving spikes appearing in their suit (the Abaremode in Abaranger, the armed on in Kyoryuger)

However, it's with the mechas that the similarities with how the theme is used is striking :

- in both series the mechas are actually sentient dinosaurs, who are the heroes's partners (even in Aba the partner theme was more explored because the Bakuryuu were able to talk)
- Both series have a similar concepts with how the main robots are made, notably with Abarenoh and Killeroh in Abaranger, and Kyoryujin and Pteradenoh in Kyoryuger : both Abarenoh and Kyoryujin have much of their body being made with the red tyrannosaurus mechas, with the other dino mechas being used as arms, and most of the different forms of both robots are linked to arm switch, with a dino mecha replacing another ; likewise, Pteradenoh and Killeoh are mostly made of a pterosaur mechas, and, likewise, the different forms are linked to arm swithc with other dino mechas ; lastly, RaidenKyoryujin and Killerabarenoh, the combination of the two robots have a similar concept.
However, Plesion and Bragigas have no real counterpart in Abaranger
- As said before, most of the other dino mechas are used as arms in the robots
- Both Bragigas and Brachi are pretty much father figures to the other Bakuryuus
- Abaranger and Kyoryuger, as expected, alos have a lot of dinosaur/prehistoric reptiles mechas from same species : the classic Tyrannosaurus, Triceratops, Stegosaurus, Pteranodon, Brachiosaurus, but also Parasaurolophus, Ankylosaurus and Pachycephalosaurus.

Villains

-Interestingly, Abaranger and Kyoryuger's villains have a very similar concept : both have as main enemy a destructive entity coming from space long ago, but then stayed on Earth for a long time : Deboth and Dezumozorya are basically parasitic gods which aim is to destroy life : Dezumozorya absorbs all the life for itself, Deboth is basically a destroyer : both have a green theme, and both need to be revived, and to have a functional body. Moreover, most of the villains generals and mosnters basically are created out of the main villain, with Chaos, his generals, the Zorima and the monsters being created from Deboth, and Mikela, Voffa, the Bamias, Trinoids and Giganoids beign created from Dezumozorya
- In both cases, the fight against the evil entity started much before the beginning of the series,  with character involved in the fight before the core heroes (Asuka and the Ryujin in Abaranger, Torin, Ramirez, Tessai, Dr Ulshade and Utsusemimaru in Kyoryuger), and in both cases, those characters suffered huge losses, with a lot of destruction of life.
- Both series have a cursed armor as a major antagonist : Dogold in Kyoryuger, the cursed armor in Abaranger : and in both, a ranger was one of the victims (Asuka in Abaranger, Utsusemimaru in Kyoryuger)
- In both series, being born from the main villains doesn't always mean that you have to be evil : if the Evolian or Deboth creature is able to be touched by Earth and his living creatures, there is potential to become good : in Abaranger, Yatsudenwani (his love for Ranru and then, the kindness of the people in the Kyoryuya restaurant), in Kyoryuger, Torin (impressed by Earth and the dinosaurs's beauty) , and then Candelila  and Luckyuro (Candy is touched by Nossan's kindness, and Lucky loves manga)
- Both series have basically the female and kid member of the evil group turning good (Jeanne and Lije in Aba, Candelila and Luckyuro in Kyoryuger)
- Both have mooks based on protozoa life : the Barmia are amoeba design, the Zorima has paramecia design. 

A last few elements after watching the finale :
- in Kyoryuger, the "Earth melody" and how music give powers to the heroes  is a concept that is used in a very similar way as the "Dino Guts " of Abaranger.
- The final episode is in a lot of ways an homage to Abaranger's finale, notably with Red seemingly dying at the end, and all the rangers being sad, with the epilogue showing he's survived.

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