A show's first few episodes are important. They set up the characters, introduce the world, and give you a rundown of the show you're about to watch. There are a ton of great first episodes in Sentai so I figured I should do a series on talking about some first episodes. Lets start this off with the first episodes of a Sentai show I adore and one thats very topical at the moment since not only is it the show's 20th anniversary, it got a movie this year. If you've spoken with me about Sentai, you've probably seen me gush about how much I adore Abaranger. I absolutely adored this show when I saw it 8 years ago and it still remains my 3rd favorite Sentai. So now, lets talk about its first two episodes. Say it with me: ABARE! ABARE! ABARE!
The show opens in one hell of a spectacular fashion. A lone warrior traveling a desert wasteland on a raptor and when the enemy base shows up and starts blasting. The opening theme kicks in right as we get this cool raptor-back fight scene with Masaki Endoh belting out "ABARE! ABARE! ABARE!" at the top of his goddamn lungs. Then he gets knocked off and the throw down gets started properly all while the opening theme keeps blasting.
Thats just the first few minutes of the episode. The rest of it is basically a 30 minute old school kaiju flick. The only thing its missing is the old spotty film grain. I'm not kidding, you've got a pretty great sequence of Tyranno, Tricera, and Ptera rampaging and just absolutely tearing Tokyo a new asshole with really damn creative shots with the CGI dino models. All of this is while they're begging anyone who can hear their voices to stop them by any means necessary until the chosen heroes hit the scene and snap them out of it. Once thats done, we get less of fight with the mooks and more of an awesome slaughter with the Abarangers just going absolutely ham during the whole damn thing. After thats all taken care of, it ends on a really damn ominous shot of another dinosaur approaching. Its one hell of a first episode for the show.
The second episode is pretty good. We get a bit of needed breathing room from the balls to the wall pace of the first episode. They meet up at the Dino Curry spot and take a breather while getting to know each other. Ryoga and Ranru are all up for kicking some alien ass and defending the planet. Yukito on the other hand is not enthused that the job doesn't pay so he walks out. That one little scene perfectly sets up the dynamic between the main 3 Abarangers. Yukito is basically the straight man for Ryouga's and Ranru's personalities. After that we get a good look at all the damage that the fight in the first ep caused. The rest of the episode is a really sweet plot about Yukito finding the need to fight by helping a kid recover a cherished race car that was a gift from a friend from the remains of some of the buildings that were destroyed in episode 1. The mecha fight is great and ends on an amazing shot of Abaren-oh plowing through an Evolian ship drill first.
And thats the first two episodes of Abaranger. Honestly they're a great start to the show and just pile on the awesomeness and high energy kickassery. The show just goes absolutely balls to the wall from the start. They're just missing the surreal stuff thats also apart of the show. These first two episodes are just the tip of the iceberg in regards to how cool Abaranger is and I can't recommend the show enough. I'm glad to see the show getting even more and more love as time goes by. Its one of my absolute favorites and these first two episodes are a solid reason why.
