Setting The Stage: Bakuryu Sentai Abaranger

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.

My Favorite Super Sentai Heroes

There are pretty much heroes of every type in Sentai. That is one of the things that draw me to these types of shows. I love seeing heroes give awesome speeches and giving villains a righteous butt-kicking. With so many heroes in the franchise there are a lot to choose from. Lets see if I can narrow it down to just my favorites from what I've seen so far. They're not going to be ranked since I love them all for different reasons.

Jan/GekiRed:

I'm gonna keep this section short because I already covered Jan in my Gekiranger review. I liked Jan's Tarzan vibe early on. The show made his reactions to civilization feel really natural. His rivalry with Rio was nice and intense. His plot-line with Suguu being made from the soul of his father was downright heart-breaking. I teared up when Jan had to kill him so he could rest in peace. I've seen some folks call him a chosen one and eh, that description doesn't really fit the character imo. He had a talent for martial arts but he still struggled and had to train throughout the entire show.

Burai/DragonRanger:

Yeah, this dude was definitely gonna make the list. He is easily the standout among the Zyurangers. His introduction is a classic story of misplaced anger. It shows just how anger and the thirst for vengeance can consume someone. I absolutely loved the lead-up to his death. His death shows that sometimes you just can't escape your fate. Even though they powers and skill, they're still human in the end. It also re-enforces what the show was sort of about: The children's lives are more important. Even knowing there was no possible way to escape his fate, he fought on to the end and died a true hero.

Ryouga/AbaRed:

Out of all the Reds I've seen so far, he is probably the one I'd say is the most heroic for me at the moment. He also happens to be my favorite Red in Sentai at the moment. I loved his family dynamic with Mai. Do not mess with kids or he will end you. Its honestly one of my weak-points when it comes to superheroes. There is no easier way to get me to like a character than having them get righteously angry when a kid is harmed. I love how he never gives up his faith in humanity and he hands out so many righteous butt-kickings over the course of the show. The show really likes to show how much he believes in people by constantly having AbareKiller push his buttons and test his faith. Even after seeing AbareKiller do despicable things, he still wanted to redeem him. The dude is a genuinely nice guy so I can't help but like him.

Gai Ikari/GokaiSilver:

Of course the Sentai fanboy was going to make this list. I absolutely loved the character's enthusiasm. His actor really sells the Sentai fan angle. He is pretty much a walking Sentai encyclopedia which is great because its the major thing Marvelous' crew was missing. His job is pretty much interpreting Navi's cryptic clues that lead to them to the veterans in each tribute episode. He gets to live his dream when he becomes a Gokaiger. His ability to merge ranger keys together demonstrates his understanding of Sentai rather well imo.

Umeko/DekaPink:

What can I say? I love her episodes so much. I couldn't get through most of her episodes without a big smile creeping across my face. She is mostly a comic-relief character and those make up a the bulk of my favorite episodes in Dekaranger. She has some serious moments and they can be fun as well. For her comedy episodes, I really like the episode where she went undercover as a princess. Weirdly, I'm one of the few people in fandom who prefer her over Jasmine when it comes to their characters. I like Jasmine as well, but Umeko is just more fun for me.

Sen/DekaGreen:

This dude is my favorite character in Dekaranger alongside Umeko. I love his creative approach to the cases. He usually manages to give some nice insight into the cases during a lot of episodes. He has a habit of spotting details that his teammates tend to overlook and comes up with creative ways to stop some of the Alienizers. His serious moments are great. The episode he shared with Umeko is one of my favorites out of the series. It shows that you should never harm someone he cares about. The villain is just toying with her emotions in that episode and it is so satisfying to see Sen beat him into the ground.

Asuka/AbareBlack:

This dude is not only my favorite character in Abaranger, he is probably my favorite character in all of Sentai. He just goes through so much over the course of Abaranger and it gets pretty intense as the show goes on. His story is actually pretty heart-wrenching and his dynamic with Mahoro/Jeanne is one of my favorite parts of the show. I'd honestly love to see Sentai do more stuff like that. You just want to see those two make it out of the show together. The show did a great job of getting me invested in Asuka's story and I loved every second of it. Its probably my favorite story in all of Sentai and it is easily the best romance I've seen in Sentai so far.

My Favorite Sentai Suits: Team Looks

Since I did a post for the individual suits, I'm going to do one for team looks now. How a suit looks by itself is important but equally important is how it looks next to the other members of its team. Due to this being based on visuals, I'll be including suits from series I haven't finished yet. I couldn't think of a good order for these so they will not be ranked. Note: these are not actually all of my favorite suits because this would be far too long if I were to list them all.

Hikari Sentai Maskman:

These are probably my favorite Pre-Zyu sentai team suits. They're rather nice and simple looking. They're also very sleek, stream-lined and easy to identify at first glance. The white portions of the suits makes all five colors pop really well. I particularly like the white streaks on the boots. The big 5 logo on the chest looks great. Sentai has used white gloves for a lot of teams but they really work well here. Its probably because of the colored guards on the back of the hands. I absolutely love the different designs on the helmets. Another detail I really like is that Yellow Mask and Pink Mask's helmets have earrings on them.

Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger:

Nice and simple yet hard to forget. They have a very classic look to them. The white portions really complement all each member's color. The helmets have a lot of nice detail to them. I especially like the trunk pattern and tusks on Goshi's helmet. I love the belts for the Zyurangers. Something about the henshin device being their belt buckles really clicks with me. Out of all six, Burai's suit is probably my favorite. The gold works really well with the green and the gold Dino Buckler completes the look.

Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger:

These are probably my favorite of the most recent sentai suits. I love the pirate hat sculpting on the helmets. It works really well with the jackets. The black spandex complement the colors for all six really. The gold stripes and belts work really well with all six colors. These suits really sell the pirate motif at first glance. My favorite suit out of these six is probably GokaiSilver's. I love the anchor design on the top of the helmet and the colored visor looks great alongside the silver suit.

Gosei Sentai Dairanger:

The gold portions of the helmets look great and have some really nice detail to them. The white portions of the main five's suits work really well with the gold trim and complements their colors rather well. I love the way the Dairanger emblem looks. Kibaranger's suit looks great. The black and gold chest-plate complements the white really well. I also like how the gold bands are outlined in black. I especially love the gold belts on all six suits.

Bakuryu Sentai Abaranger:

These suits look great together. The white spike patterns on Ryouga, Yukito, and Ranru's suits complement their colors rather well. The gold spike patterns on Asuka's suit complement the black really well. The black spikes complement Mikoto's white suit really well and I particularly like the gold trim on the chest-plate. It looks just different enough from the other 4 to stick out while looking just similar enough to feel like it belongs with them.

Choushinsei Flashman:

Seeing these suits in Gokaiger was what made me originally want to watch Flashman. These suits have a very nice space-age and hi-tech feel to them while managing to look simple. The black on the sides of the suits really help complement the each of their colors and I particularly like the darker shade of green for Green Flash. The helmets pretty much scream "This is alien tech!". Like the stripes on the sides of the suit, the black outlines on the top of the helmets help complement the colors as does the white. A detail that I really love is that the visors are actually retractable. The design of the emblems are nicely done.

Mirai Sentai Timeranger:

I absolutely love the colored visors and its something I'd like to see done more. The black on the helmets really help the visors pop. The white on the suits complements each color nicely. The sculpted mouth pieces really suit them well. I like how the braces don't vanish when they're transformed and are actually worked into the arm-piece of the suits. The silver arm-pieces and belt buckle look great with the black on them. I love the design of the belts.

Choudenshi Bioman:

Like the Flashman suits, the Bioman suits manage to look simple yet hi-tech at the same time. The white really complements each color. I like the Bioman emblem, its nice and simple. It being integrated into the belt works rather well. The emblem looks great with the black on the belt. The helmets look really hi-tech thanks to the domes on the head with visible circuits. The circuit board pattern across the chest helps sell the look as well. The sculpted mouth-pieces on the helmets really mesh well with the rest of the suits.

Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger:

These suits look great together and they just might have my favorite overall look. The silver highlights on the main five's helmets work really well. I think the main five having one black arm is a nice look. I like how each Dekaranger's number is plastered on their chests. Despite the differences from the main six, DekaMaster and DekaSwan's suits compliment the over-all look of the group very well. They also look like a natural evolution of the main six's suits. Those two also happen to be my favorite suits out the Dekaranger suits. I especially love the more armor-like look they have. DekaBreak's suit is probably the best in terms of overall color combination. The blue, gold and white complement each other very well.

So yeah, those are just some of my favorite suits. There are more that I absolutely love but I didn't want the list to run too long. These are simply the first suits that came to mind when I decided to do this list. In all honesty, there really aren't that many suits in Sentai that I don't like.

My Updated Sentai Rankings

Well I've seen a lot more Sentai since my last ranking list. I've got some new ones to add and I've re-thought the rankings for some of them. Since my last list I've finished a couple more series, seen 11 eps of Bioman, 10 eps of Maskman, 2 eps of GoGoV, 5 eps of Flashman, 7 eps of Timeranger, 9 eps of Megaranger, and 2 eps of Zyuohger. I've also seen a couple eps of Denjiman and an episode of Battle Fever J (unsubbed of course). Ninninger won't be anywhere in this post since I never bothered watching after the first episode. So lets take a look at what has been added and what has been changed.

Before I get to the actual rankings there are still series that I haven't finished but have seen at least half of. I'm mentioning them again because there has been a change in regards to one of them.

Choujuu Sentai Liveman:

Yeah, I need to get back to this at some point. I've been shown clips of some really good stuff that happens near the end. Its just gonna be a while until I get back to this one. I still absolutely love the suits, especially the helmets. Pretty much nothing has changed regarding my thoughts on this show. Its still really good and every character in the show feels natural. Megumi is hands down my favorite character on the team.

Samurai Sentai Shinkenger:

Sword fights just make me happy and the swordplay in this show is still fantastic. I still love the suits and the helmets. The opening and ending themes still have a nice punch to them. My favorite suit is probably Genta's since I like the way the gold and blue look together. I also like Genta's reverse grip sword style. Chiaki is probably my favorite character in the show from what I've seen so far. The rest of my thoughts are pretty much the same as last time.

Gosei Sentai Dairanger:

This one has been removed from my watch-list since last time. Why? Well because I plan on getting the DVDs at some point so I can just finish it at my own pace. These suits are still gorgeous. I can't tell you how much I love these things. The fight choreography still holds up really well to me. My favorite fighting style in the show belongs to Kazu. Drunken fist is one of the coolest styles in my opinion. My favorite character however is probably Daigo. I absolutely love what I've seen of his sub-plot with Kujaku so far. The opening theme is definitely one of my favorites.

Now, with that out of the way, lets move on to the actual rankings. Just remember, if a show you liked gets ranked low on here, its because its not my kind of show.

9. Ressha Sentai ToQger:

Just want to start by saying that I have not actually finished watching ToQger. I gave up about halfway through. So why is it being ranked? Its being ranked simply because I have no plans to continue with the series any time soon. The show never really gave me anything to get invested in. The plot is slow and the build up of what I did see is problematic. Even when things happened, it felt like nothing happened or it was treated like it didn't matter. I dropped the series on a cliffhanger which is something I almost never do. Normally characters would be enough to keep me invested in a slow series but even at the halfway point, I couldn't get a feel for the characters. The action was forgettable and I can only remember a single move. Its a kendama attack that Hikari and Kagura did in an early episode of the show. If other people like this show, more power to them but its just not for me.

8. Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger:

My tune has changed slightly toward Kyoryuger since last time. I still think its meh overall and its still not something I'd rewatch. I sort of get why people like Daigo now but I still think the show praises him a little too much. I still have some issues with the pacing of the show but I think its best pacing happens during the final arc. The show could've done a bit more with Cyan and Grey than having them pop in and out every now just then. I think their entire purpose in the show should've been them trying to find someone to inherit their powers. Sort of a passing the torch situation that wasn't put in at the last minute. The Zyudenchi kinda slowed down the action a little too much for my taste.

7. Tokumei Sentai Gobusters:

I seem to run into more and more fans of this show these days. I still love the leather look of the suits and the colored visors. I enjoy the first opening theme and my thoughts on the second opening theme has changed. I think the second theme is ok though it tends to get lodged in my head too easily. The action I don't remember being that spectacular and I do remember some of it looking kind of stiff. I did like the early mecha fights where the fight was happening in a mecha and on the ground at the same time. My opinion of Hiromu has softened up a bit though I still don't care much for him. I liked Enter a lot more during the first half than the second half. He had this sort of quirky flare to him with the disguises and my personal favorite was the panda suit. I actually like how streamlined and the arsenal is. With all that being said, this still isn't a show I have any interest in rewatching.

6. Mahou Sentai Magiranger:

I think the show handled the family aspect decently. The show has some of the more gorgeous suits in Sentai imo and I like their civilian uniforms. The opening still gets me pumped and it still has my favorite ending theme in all of Sentai. I still love that the source of their magic is their own courage which is a nice avenue for character development imo. The show does play it kind of safe but I enjoyed it. I love the mecha in the show and I like the idea of them becoming their individual mecha. It had some decently heart-warming moments. This show still has my favorite mecha control system in the franchise so far.

5. Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger:

I've seen the fandom divided over this one. I understand people's complaints about the show but I enjoyed it. The main five are under-developed but that doesn't bother me much. They're simply doing what heroes do even if they take the backseat to the kids. I can't really imagine the team without any of them simply because their personalities balance each other out. What sells the show for me though is Burai and Bandora. Bandora is surprisingly creepy and her plans have this hidden edge to them. There is quite a bit of nightmare fuel with some of the Dora monsters. She actually might just be one of my all time favorite Sentai villains. The mecha action and designs are great. The show manages to do so much with just seven mecha.

4. Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger:

Yeah this one kind of dropped, but not because I've rethought my stance on it. I still love the cast and all the enthusiasm. Gai is still probably my favorite character but its a bit closer call for all them now. Its still probably my favorite anniversary season. It is very accessible to people who are just getting into Sentai. It makes you want to see what you missed out on while not leaving you lost and wondering what you missed from previous series. I think it finds a good balance when it comes to pleasing both old and new fans. Depsite not knowing most of the veterans showing up, I was still hyped for each tribute episode. I love GokaiOh and how its variations don't over-shadow the basic design.

3. Bakuryu Sentai Abaranger:

I absolutely loved this show. I love the cast and they have some really good chemistry. This is definitely one of the most tense and touching Sentai seasons I've seen. I mean man, this show is so awesome. I loved pretty much everything about it. Jeanne and Asuka is my favorite love story/rivalry in Sentai so far. It also makes for some gripping and heart-wrenching moments. Ryouga is definitely one of my favorite Reds in Sentai. I love his optimism regarding human nature a lot as well as the family dynamic he has with Mai. There isn't a character in this show that I don't like. The fights got pretty brutal at certain points in the show. I like how the Bakuryu aren't just treated like mecha, they're characters in their own right. I particularly love the interactions between Ryouga and Tyranno. I absolutely love the suit designs. This show definitely has some of my favorite villains, those being Jeanne and AbareKiller.

2. Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger:

Yeah this one definitely should've been higher on the last list. The main reason I pushed it up to here this time is pretty much thanks to the 10 Years After movie. It reminded me of just how much I enjoyed the series. I spent the entire run-time of the movie with a big smile on my face. That movie captured Dekaranger perfectly and it felt just like an episode of the show. I still love the cast a lot. Everyone got their respective moments of awesome. Its a great example of a cop show and I love the Alienizers as a villain group. Abrella is definitely one of my favorite villains in the franchise and I still remember most of the Alienizers. After watching some Bioman, I can definitely say that Dekaranger took some inspiration from Bioman in regards to the Alienizers having their own mecha. This is definitely one of the most memorable shows I've seen in general. The mecha action is great and I absolutely love the mecha designs. DekaBase Robo is probably my favorite mecha in the show.

1. ???

What is my number one? Well you'll find out in a few months. Thats right, I'm devoting a rewatch and a full review to this one. Its probably going to be the most in-depth review I've ever written. I hope you're all looking forward to it.

Bakuryu Sentai Abaranger Review

It is sort of weird how my last Sentai review was Dekaranger and now I'm covering its predecessor. This is a show that I had been curious about due to what I had read about it and what some friends had said about it. Needless to say, I jumped on it once it was subbed completely. Time to unleash my Dino Guts and take a look at how I felt about Abaranger. Note: Its going to be hard for me to talk about certain characters without getting into some spoilers so for the purpose of this review, my no spoiler policy is gone. However, I will try to avoid the biggest spoilers if at all possible.

Plot: The story opens with a lone warrior riding through a desert wasteland on a raptor while an Evolian ship rains down energy blasts. The warrior sees a portal to another world and jumps through winding up on Another Earth. Once there he seeks out warriors who can channel their Dino Guts to fight the on-coming invasion. Thus begins the tale of the Abarangers.

Characters: The main cast is fun and they have some great chemistry. We get a lot of nice interactions in the series, particularly between Ryouga and Mai. Note: AbareKiller will be covered in the villains section since he was a villain for most of the series.

• Ryouga/AbaRed: Ryouga is Mai's uncle but he treats her like she is his daughter. His relationship with Mai was entertaining and adorable. It is that sort of family dynamic that I want to see more of in Sentai. A lot of his plots revolve around either AbareKiller or children being targeted by the Evolian. Needless to say, both of those involve great speeches from Ryouga about having hope in humanity and usually result in a righteous butt-kicking for the villains. I don't have a favorite episode for him because there are too many good ones to choose from.
• Yukito/AbareBlue: A serious level-headed chiropractor. He manages to take all the weirdness with a straight face. One thing that sort of surprised me is that his chiropractic skills actually got applied multiple times throughout the series. It was something I thought that they'd simply write off as something he could do and not mention it again. My favorite episodes for him are probably the mind-swap episode with Ryouga and the episode were Tricera turns into a human child.
• Ranru/AbareYellow: Ranru is a fun character. Everything is her hobby and I mean everything, including but not limited to science, machines, and wearing bullet-proof vests. She has a strong sense of justice and the drive to help anyone in need. She is also one of the major driving forces that keeps Asuka motivated in his search for Mahoro and is very invested in making sure they could reunite. She even went so far as to take back a bracelet Asuka made for Mahoro when an Evolian stole it.
• Asuka/AbareBlack: I'm just going to come right out and say it, Asuka is my favorite character out of the main cast. The dude went through a lot over the course of the series. His love story with Mahoro was really well done and honestly, Sentai needs more love stories like that. My favorite episode for him is actually the arc where they destroy the cursed armor as it shows the lengths that he and Mahoro would go to for each other.
• Mai: Ryouga's niece who lost her parents when she was young. Her interactions with Ryouga were fun to watch and really adorable. They really feel like family.
• Emiri: She is mostly comic relief though she does get a few episodes devoted to her. She is effective as both comic relief and as an ally. No matter what happens she will usually try to make sure Mai is ok and keep her from worrying whenever the Abarangers are in danger. She sort of acts like an older sister for Mai in that regard. My favorite episodes for her are the episodes with the psychic rhino trinoid and the AbarePink episode.
• Ryunosuke: The owner of a curry restaurant known as Dino House that serves as the Abarangers' base. He provides little nuggets of wisdom and gives the Abarangers a place to stay in exchange for helping out around the restaurant.

Bakuryu: The Bakuryu are the mecha but they are much more than that. They are sentient partners that the Abarangers can turn to. They have their own distinct personalities and they are a great support system for the Abarangers. The relationships between the Bakuryu and the Abarangers was fun to watch, especially Ryouga and Tyranno's relationship. Both of them know exactly what it is like to be fathers and have families to take care of. They are honestly what I think the ZyuDenRyu should've been in Kyoryuger since it feels like an actual partnership. You actually get to see the Abarangers interact with the Bakuryu instead of just saying that they are partners. Tyranno, Tricera, and Ptera's appearance in the first episode had this Godzilla/Jurassic Park vibe to it. If I were to pick my favorite of the Bakuryu, it would be Tyranno, Tricera, Stegoslidon, and Brachio.

Their combined forms are nicely designed. Most of the extra Bakuryu are normally limited to being arm changes or add-ons for Abaren-Oh and Killer-Oh. It works out really well and doesn't change the overall design aspects of the two mecha. The mecha action is nicely choreographed and each fight carries some nice weight to it. The fights between Abaren-Oh and Killer-Oh were done well. My personal favorite Abaranger mecha design is Killer-Oh. It has a very imposing look to it and the colors blend really well.

Villains: 

From left to right: Michela, Jeanne, Rege, Geitron, and Voff.

The Evolians are the major antagonists and they feature a wide variety of designs. The bulk of the Evolian forces are Trinoids made by Michela and Giganoids made by Voff. Michela makes the Trinoids by painting three objects and it usually results in weird designs and abilities. The Giganoids are massive kaijuu-like beings created by Voff composing music. Geitron wasn't really around for long but his armor became a major part of Asuka's story. Now we get to the major players of the Evolians: Jeanne and Rege. Since these two are major parts of the plot, spoilers incoming.

Jeanne is honestly my favorite villain among the Evolians due to her plot-line being so closely tied to Asuka. Her fights with him were very intense and they are some of my favorite fights out of all of Sentai. The swordplay used by the two was fantastic. She made a great rival for him especially given who she actually is. She is Mahoro which isn't really much of a spoiler since Asuka speculates that she is or at least looks oddly similar to Mahoro rather early on and it makes the dynamic between both of them all the more interesting while adding some fantastic tension. I also like costume she wears, it has a lot of intricate and ornate details. It has an almost regal or royal air about it and she looks like a priestess.

Pretty much everything Rege does in the plot qualifies as a big spoiler so I'll try to describe her as best I can. Rege is Dezmoparamecia's host body. Its weird to think that such an adorable little girl has that much power inside of her. In addition to that, she serves as a way to transport the Evolians between Dino Earth and Another Earth.

When she becomes Regel later on, her power really shines through. She is a nice power-house villain and her first fight gives off a good glimpse of her true powers. Her arc is rather sad yet heart-warming due to its relation to Jeanne and the Evolian invasion of Dino Earth. I unfortunately can't say much more than that because it will spoil on of the most emotional moments of the show in my opinion.

AbareKiller is my favorite Abaranger villain overall. AbareKiller was fun to watch and made a great rival for Ryouga. He really knows how to push people's buttons. He doesn't have some grand plan in mind, he just wants to destroy stuff so he can ease his boredom. The man's take on boredom is an interesting one since well it is a major extreme. If he is bored he will do anything to get rid of it, whether it includes fighting, messing with the Abarangers' heads, or even crashing a planet into the Earth while he is still on it. He has no regard for his own safety and he will do anything as long as it amuses him. He'll even go so far as to change his own rules or cheat as long as it will make the game more exciting for him. All of that combined with his strength kind of scares me. He is just so much fun to watch.

Suit designs:

The suit designs for all of them are awesome. They all have a sleek design.The suits for Ryouga, Yukito, and Ranru feature white spike patterns along with their associated color. There is a big gold and black logo on the chest that looks like a dinosaur footprint. The helmets are nicely sculpted and immediately lets you know which dinosaurs they are modeled after. The visors look nice outlined in white. The gold wristbands look nice on all three of them and the belts look great in gold with a silver buckle.

Asuka's suit looks great and features a nice balance of black and gold that blends really well. His suit features gold shoulder pads and gold spike patterns. The helmet is nicely sculpted and immediately gives off a brachiosaurus look and features an interesting touch of red on the fin. The helmet even has little purple bits around the eyes on his helmet. Its the finer details like that that make me admire the craft that goes into making suits and how they affect the overall aesthetic of the show. The visor looks great outlined in gold. The gold wristbands and belt compliment his color scheme the most out of all five suits.

Mikoto's suit features a nice combination of white, black, and gold. The chest-plate looks great outlined in gold and the sculpting on the spikes is nice. Unlike the other suits, the collar is black instead of white. Its an odd choice but it works well enough since it helps provide a good bit of contrast with the white on the rest of the suit. The helmet is nicely sculpted and the visor looks great in red while being outlined in the black. The visor has a sort of sinister look to it thanks to the red. The black fin on the helmet has some nice little red eyes on it. The Abaranger logo for him is located on the belt with the points of the logo being black.

The spike patterns on all five suits were a nice choice for two reasons: 1. They provide a nice aesthetic value. 2. They serve an actual purpose in combat. By focusing their Dino Guts they can access Abare Mode which causes the spike patterns to actually protrude from the suits. Their bodies effectively become slashing weapons and they way they fight becomes more brutal. This further emphasizes the savage nature of dinosaurs in general and nicely alludes to the dinosaurs they are themed after. Asuka's fights are particularly brutal as he punches straight through some of the Evolians. At one point, AbareKiller even impales one on a tree branch. Ranru's Abare Mode even includes wings under her arms though they disappear later on for some reason. A nice little reference to their Bakuryu partners is that they also grunt and growl using the same words that the Bakuryu usually end their sentences with.

Ryouga has an upgrade form known as AbareMax. This is actually my favorite Abaranger suit overall. It doesn't really over-shadow the original AbaRed suit so it seems a bit more natural by just adding shoulder pads and a gold face-plate around the visor. The white spikes get replaced with blue and gold spikes. The logo gets expanded to look like the shield that enables the transformation and the brace gets gold-plated. The shield has some nice sculpting on it and red, gold, and black blends really well together. I absolutely love AbareMax's weapon since it doubles as both a sword and a shield. I've always like dual purpose weapons like that.

Music: Abaranger has a nice soundtrack. The opening theme does exactly what it it supposed to do. It gets you pumped up and excited. The ending theme is catchy and energetic. Those two songs are among the short list of opening/ending themes that I couldn't bring myself to skip through in order to save time. The tune from Asuka's harmonica is nice. It feels sort of eerie, sad, yet hopeful all at the same time. In a way, it sort of captures Asuka's feelings as the show goes on.

Final Thoughts: The show as a whole seems to have a certain way about it that I wish post-Gokaiger shows had in them. Each episode plot just has this scale of epic-ness to it and it all fit together rather nicely. There is nothing about this show that feels off to me. Despite the weirdness of one or two episodes, they still feel like they belong in the series. Each of the Abarangers gets their appropriate moments to be awesome and its fun to see them interact with each other. The fight choreography was really well handled particularly the sword-play in the fights between Asuka and Jeanne. The Abare Mode fights were down right brutal and featured quite a few wince-inducing moments. Abaranger is filled with moments where I couldn't help but smile because of the characters or pump my fist in the air due to the levels of awesome. The current Sentai at the time I started Abaranger kind of had me down and bored (ToQger which I gave up on after 22 episodes of nothing happening) so it felt good to get excited about about something again. I would highly recommend this series to any Sentai fan, especially if post-Gokaiger Sentai series aren't exactly agreeing with them. At the time of this post, Abaranger holds my number 3 spot right alongside Dekaranger.