Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger Review

Originally, I was a little concerned about the show after hearing it wasn't plot-based but once I started the series, that concern was quickly thrown out the window. That was thanks in no small part to how the writer handles the episodic format. Without further adieu, its time to see how Dekaranger worked out for me. In other words: Its Judgement Time!

Story: The show follows the exploits of Earth's branch of a galactic police force known as the Dekarangers. It isn't done like a usual Sentai series as it has a more episodic nature like an actual cop show and lacks an over-arcing plot. The episodic nature of the show actually works in its favor and it makes everything memorable like the Alienizers but I'll get to them later. It gives plenty of room for great moments for all of the Dekarangers.

Characters: The cast for this show is just fun. They have some nice chemistry and I like the way they play off of each other, particularly in the episodes Jasmine and Umeko share.

• Ban/DekaRed: He is a decent character. I like his drive and sense of justice. During his scenes he can be overly energetic but he has a nice heart even acknowledging later in the series that he is the one keeping the team from being too by-the-book. Though my main complaint is that sometimes his screams can be a bit disorienting. My favorite episode for Ban is the episode where he was running around the city looking for explosives. The episode shows that Ban isn't actually a fool and I especially love the look on everyone's face when he figures out where the Alienizer is.
• Hoji/DekaBlue: He prides himself on his skill and professionalism as well as taking his job really seriously. It was fun seeing him react to Ban's overly energetic personality and antics all the while watching him grow to accept Ban. He has some of the more serious episodes in the show and they make for great drama. My personal favorite episodes of his are Hard-boiled License and the episode where he sneaks into an illegal fighting circuit.
• Sen/DekaGreen: Sen is a fun character. His focus episodes were some of the most interesting ones due to the way he analyzes the cases. He is usually able to spot things that his teammates overlook while coming up with interesting ways to stop the Alienizers. My favorite moments for Sen are the episode with the plant Alienizer that used water to cut things and the episode with the ghost Alienizer. They really highlight his inventiveness and ability to analyze things.
• Jasmine/DekaYellow: Jasmine is a fun character somewhat serious character who is usually calm. Like Hoji, she gets some of the more serious episodes but she can also be funny as well. I like her back-story of how she came to terms with her powers. Her powers as an ESPer were interesting and the show molded them to fit the cop show motif. It is a nice take on what is similar to mind reading but works on objects as well as living beings. My favorite episodes for her are a tie between the episode with that goofy duck Alienizer and her episode with detective Chou.
• Umeko/DekaPink: Her episodes are some of my favorites due to her being a more comedic character. I couldn't get through a lot of her comedic scenes without a big smile creeping across my face. Her serious moments were fun as well. If I was to pick a favorite character, it would be a tie between her and Sen. For comedy, my favorite is the episode where she went undercover as a princess. For seriousness, it is a tie between the episode Requiem World, an episode she shares with Jasmine, and the episode she almost got married which she shared with Sen.
• Testsu/DekaBreak: Tetsu was just kind of there for me. He didn't get as many focus episodes as the others. Overall the character is just meh for me. Being a sucker for martial arts, I did like how his combat style was geared toward bare-handed fighting. I also really like how his henshin device doubles as his weapon. The DekaBright episode provided a nice explanation for why Tetsu didn't believe in fighting with emotion in his premier.
• Kruger/DekaMaster: The mentor and an awesome swordsman. What I like about him the most is that shortly after his first transformation he tells the Dekarangers that he will not fight alongside them in every fight since they would become too dependent on his strength. That is the mark of a great mentor when he basically tells them that they have to grow stronger for the coming battles while still helping when they absolutely need him. My favorite episodes of his are his premier and the episode Mortal Campaign.
• Swan/DekaSwan: She also serves as the team's mentor alongside Kruger. I like how part of her role is to repair and maintain the mechas. It was a nice touch and it is something I would like to see done more in Sentai. She has this almost motherly air around her when she speaks with the others and it really shows in how much the others respect her. She is someone the others can turn to if they need advice. My favorite Swan moment was the episode she transformed. I like the speech she gave Hiemel about how the machines that they build should be used to help people, not built for personal glory. Even though she only fought once, it had this air of awesomeness to it.

Villains: The way the Alienizers are handled is very interesting and rather creative. Since this is written like a cop show, they are entirely one-off characters with Agent Abrella being the exception. Despite them being one-offs however, the writer goes to great lengths to make them memorable. Whether it is their motives, their powers, or their designs, you will more remember them more often than not. The show features some very creative plans from the Alienizers such as turning humans into spaceship fuel, turning them into dolls for a collection, and even the old stand-by simply attempting to blow up the planet just to name a few. The diverse designs and abilities really help show how vast the universe is in Dekaranger. If I were to pick my favorite of the one-off Alienizers, it would be the Hell Siblings. They were nice power-house villains and I liked how Succubus' first response to fighting Jasmine was "Hey she could be useful to us so I'll force her to join".

Agent Abrella is just a cool and interesting villain. He doesn't really have any interest in taking over the world, he is just a weapons dealer for the various Alienizers and is simply in it for the money. For the right price he supplies the Alienizers with foot soldiers, new gear, and even mecha. His goal is to make the galaxy a haven for crime so he can grow his business even more. The entire reason he hates the Dekarangers is because they are getting in the way of his business and costing him money. He is also a really strategic villain who prefers to hide in the shadows as opposed to fighting the Dekarangers directly. He has an incredibly calm demeanor when he speaks, even when you can obviously tell he is mad. The guy does an entire season's worth of planning just for a three episode direct assault on DekaBase. I like his design a lot and I find it cool that it includes a tie.

Mecha:

I like the mecha designs in Dekaranger. Don't let their looks fool you, while they may look bulky they are actually very movable, especially in Dekaranger Robo's case. DekaBase Robo is one of those big mecha that actually looks and feels like it has some weight to it which is sadly something that the two most current giant mech, Great Gobuster and Gigant Kyoryuzin lacked. Every time DekaBase Robo takes a step you see the ground explode beneath its feet and sparks flying around. It is a heavy mecha that wasn't overused like Great Gobuster or Gigant Kyoryuzin. I like that DekaBike Robo has both a vehicle mode and robot mode. Plus its design is nice to look at. Super Dekaranger Robo looks nice though it looks slightly bulky. However, if I were to pick a favorite of the Dekaranger mecha, it would be DekaWing Robo. Its got a really nice design and a gun mode for its finisher.

The show features a lot of mecha with most of the Alienizers actually having giant robots of their own with some nice designs. It was a great idea to not just have the Alienizers grow into giant versions of themselves. The mecha fights in the show are great and it looks like a lot of effort went into them. As I said earlier, despite some of them looking really bulky, they can actually move rather well. The mecha fights feature a nice mix of practical effects and CGI. Overall the mecha action is nicely choreographed and exciting.

Music: Dekaranger has a lot of fun and addictive songs. The opening theme really gives the show a sense of power and energy. The ending theme is soothing, sort of mellow, and has a nice jazzy feel to it. Both of those are songs I could not bring myself to skip to save time while watching it. Girls In Trouble is a nicely addictive up-beat song featuring vocals by both Jasmine and Umeko's actresses and it is appropriately used during the girl power episodes or whenever they share a development episode. Dekaranger Action and SWAT On are awesome and they have some nice power and energy to them. The character theme songs are nice as well. If I had to pick a favorite piece of music from the show, it would be a tie between Girls In Trouble and Dekaranger Action.

Suit Designs: 

The Dekaranger suits are nice to look at. The black on the left side of the main five's suits blends well with their color scheme. It helps their numbers stand out really well. The black and silver bands on the hands and feet help add the to look of the white gloves and the belt of the suits look really nice in silver. The lights on the side of the helmets were an interesting choice and they help sell the police look along with the badges on each suit. The belt buckles for all of the suits even hold handcuffs. If I had to pick my favorite suit in terms of color combination, it would be Tetsu's suit. The white, blue, and gold blend really well together.

However, if I were to pick my favorite suits in terms of overall look, I'd have to pick Kruger's and Swan's suits since they have a slightly more armor-like look to them especially their chest-plates and they have unique helmets. For Kruger, the black spandex complements the light blue armor rather well and having his number outlined in red looks really nice. His belt looks nice in red and it works well with the buckle being silver. The raised ears on his helmet look great and so do the studded gloves on his hands. For Swan, the orange and white looks great with the orange part of the chest-plate being outlined in black. Her helmet has a nice feather pattern on the side and the visor has this almost wing-like look to it to help sell her swan motif.

The design for the main five's SWAT mode looks great. It adds on some extra armor around the legs and arms while giving them a chest-plate. It also features their respective number in their color as well as a place for the SP License. One of the lights gets pushed out to make a mic for communication between the main five. It looks very simple and doesn't over-shadow the original suit design which is a very good thing.

Final Thoughts: It was a great show and I had a lot of fun. While it doesn't have a plot per say, the way it handles its episodic formula worked out well. It is a well done cop-show that balances its comedic and serious moments nicely to create a very unique experience. I also love how the gun-play is used in this show. It never breaks up the pace of a fight. DekaRed even uses his guns like melee weapons in close-up fights.

A nice touch for the show is that they have to ask permission to use lethal force and kill the Alienizers like actual cops do. It was actually easier for me to keep track of what episode I was on than it is for me to keep track during a lot of plot-centric series. All I had to do was remember what the last Alienizer they fought was so that made marathon-ing it really easy. Overall I really enjoyed the show and I'd honestly recommend it to any sentai fan or even cop show fans in general. At the time of this review, Dekaranger holds my number 3 spot for Sentai.

Abaranger : a very female empowering show which challenges traditional gender roles and handles very daring themes

 Our female characters : adults above : left to right : Ranru Itsuki/Abareyellow, Emiri Imanaka and Jeanne/Mahoro ; kids below, left to right : Mai Hakua and Lije

1) Introduction 

Among the classic Tokusatsu franchise aimed at a classic male audience, Super Sentai is certainly the most female friendly of all, because it always (except for one case, Sun Vulcan) involves heroines who are able to transform like their male counterparts, and show that they can be as valuable and useful to the team. Goranger, the first series of the franchise, already had great female characters, like Peggy/ Momoranger, who, not only was as good as a fighter as her male partners, but also was an explosive expert, skill which ended up being useful to the team. Her competences were never questioned because of her gender. Besides, Gorenger also had good supporting characters, like Yoko/007, who helped the heroes, and even, sometimes, filled as Momo.
Bioman went even further by having two heroines, which allowed to have almost a balanced male/female ratio, with three boys and two girls. Changeman also had two girls rangers, but also a rich female supporting cast, and some great female villainesses, like Ahames, who even became a leader among the antagonists, and Shima.
Since then, other shows have shown great female characters, who were as badass as the boys, but also an interesting supporting cast, with cool female allies and fun villainesses. Some very nice series in that regard include Jetman, Megaranger, Dekaranger and Gekiranger. 

However, Abaranger has a special place, because it went much further than those shows. It had a strong female cast, but more than all those shows, it managed to give the female characters a very important focus and handle some very daring themes.

2) Abaranger : powerful ladies, and men showing their sensitive sides

Bakuryuu Sentai Abaranger is in my opinion one of the most interesting sentai (at least official sentai) with the way it dealt its characters. Not only because it had cool female characters, with a good balance between male and female, but also because of the way the male characters were written, and, most importantly, how the plot is more female centric than all other sentai series, and especially how it dealt with the theme of rape,  even if it was course very indirectly and subtly, since it's a kid show.
Let's review those different elements:

2-1  Abaranger's female characters : a diverse cast

Abaranger has about 14 main characters (not counting the Bakuryuu), 5 of them being female. If you only take into  account the cast played by actors, Abaranger has 10 main characters, including the 5 females (which photos are shown above). As such, it has a very balanced ratio between its male and female cast.

Moreover, those female characters are very diverse, and play very different roles in the show.

a) Ranru Itsuki/Abareyellow : She's the only ranger among the girls. Howeve,r it must be precised that while Abaranger has 5 rangers, it only has 3 core rangers (Red, Blue and Yellow), two boys and Ranru. Asuka (Black) is less regular as a ranger, and Mikoto (Killer) is pretty much an antagonist during most of the show. As such, while Abaranger doesn't have the best male/female balance seen in a sentai series for rangers, it is still pretty good. Besides, Ranru is never seen as a special case, because she's the lone girl. She's always written as an equal to the others, and the fact she's a girl is completely irrelevant. Moreover, she's shown as being at least as badass as her partners, even more (she's introduced in the show while she stops a thief using her skills as a biker, even before getting her Abareyellow powers). She also has an additional role, being the technological expert of the team, creating special devices in order to help fighting the Evolian, and she's shown as a very smart characters. Lastly, she also shows interest in stuff which is more traditionally associated with men, like mechanics, science and at the end of the show, she's seen working in a racetrack ; contrarywise, she pretty much gave up being an idol ( a cliche career for toku female characters).  

b) Emiri Imanaka : a hight school student, she wanted to become an Abaranger, but unfortunately, her body wasn't strong enough to  handle the Abare suit. However, she's still doing her best to help the heroes, and became a valuable assistant to them, helping them from the headquartes while the heroes were on the battlefield, notably by seeking info, or helping dealing with Mai, or looking after the heroes when they needed it. She even was more involved in the fights, like in episode 11 (the "special  cram school " plot), episode 24 (the Mikela/Voffa on Another Earth plot) or episode 28 (the kidnapped bride plot), even risking her life to help her friends. While her attempts to become a new Abaranger ("Abarepink/Pig") often failed in a comedic way, she still was a valuable asset to the team.
As such, she's a great supporting female characters, as a the valuable assistant.

c) Jeanne/Mahoro : Asuka/Abareblack's wife, who ended up becoming temporarly an Evolian. She's a very interesting characters, because she played very various roles. During the first 32 episodes of Abaranger, she was Messenger of Destruction Jeanne, a very dangerous villainess. She was the only regular skilled fighter among the villains during the first 16 episodes, until Abarekiller appeared. She's a skilled swordwoman, who trains regularly, and she's been shown to be a very dangerous enemy. Between episode 33 and 39, she ended up losing her memories, and became good again, joining the heroes and becoming a new helper, with a role similar to Emiri's. Lastly, starting with episode 40, she became Jeanne again, but she was still on the side of good, becoming a spy in order to bring valuable info to the Abarangers, which would help to defeat the Evolian. As such, she showed incredible bravery, and determination, and often used her intelligence to be able to send important info. She played at least as important a role as the Abarangers in order to defeat the enemy.
Few female characters in sentai have shown such diversity in their role in a sentai show, being as important as a villainess as she was as an heroine. Besides, her whole arc has a very deep theme, which I would explore later in the post.

d) Mai Hakua : Ryouga/Abared's niece/adoptive daughter. While her role in the plot is pretty limited, she's still a major character because of her role in Abared's personality and development. Moreover, since she's a regular kid character, she's also a character which little girls can relate with, and it helps making Abaranger appealing to a young female audience.

e) Lije/Lijewel/ Mysterious girl : Because all those different incarnations are in fact one unique character (Asuka and Mahoro's daughter), I'm gonna explore all of them at once. Like Mahoro, Lije shows great diversity in her role in the show, being both the Abaranger's enemy (as Lije/Lijewel) and ally (as the Mysterious girl).
Once again, we have major little girl character, which makes Aba unique  having two major kid characters who are female. While Lije isn't very active until episode 28, she's still the one who sends the Evolian monsters to Another Earth, cheering up her fellow Evolian to help them, and, by being the Big Bad's channel and host body, act as the de facto leader of the group. Starting with episode 28, she develops a crush on Abarekiller, and is intrumental in getting him becoming temporarly the leader of the Evolian, which made him even a more dangerous enemy to the Abarangers. She herself was able to use her powers to grow herself up, becoming Lijewel, the new Evolian Queen, and, as such, ended up being able to directly fight the Abarangers thanks to her magical powers, often giving them a hard time. However, her loyalty to Mikoto was so great she was ready to betray her fellow Evolian to save him, and was involved in making Mikoto switch sides and join the other Abarangers to defeat the Evolian. She even was able to save his life once, managing to overcome Dezumozorya's hold on her when he was about to kill Mikoto. While her crush on Mikoto (and Lijewel's actress's acting skills) might be a little controversial, feminism wise, at least, it was explained by her personal situation.
Lije's good alter ego, the mysterious girl, was a major ally to the Abarangers, helping Asuka several times, saving his life, bringing him important info, and also helping Jeanne /Mahoro overcome her pain, saving her life, and she was a key player in Jeanne becoming good Mahoro again. She also became little Mai's new friend, and she also was the key element in a major battle against Dezumozorya, expelling the evil god from Lijewel's body.

Abaranger showed a very interesting female cast, with very diverse roles, and a key involvment in major story arcs.

2-2 Abaranger's atypical male heroes
Another very interesting element of Abaranger is how the male characters are written. Indeed, Abaranger did some very daring choices, with its male characters who are very different from the classic manly strong hero (which is especially shown in the 70' and 80' sentai shows), and often in very atypical roles
a) Ryouga Hakua/Abared : the single father
It's perhaps the most remarkable element of Abaranger : the show has its main hero, its red ranger, being a single father (adoptive father and biological uncle, but still a father figure). Given how Japan is conservative about gender roles, how Super Sentai is more targeted to a boy demographic, it's pretty amazing to see a show with the main hero having a parenting role, which is a more traditional "female" role. It's even remarkable since it's a major element of the show and of Ryouga's character. A lot of episodes are focused on Ryouga struggling to be a good father to Mai, balancing his duties as as a father with his duty as an Abaranger (when the dilemma family/career is more traditionally involving mothers), notably in episodes 3 and 37. While Ryouga is helped by Emiri who, as a good assistant, acts as a babysitter to Mai when necessary, he's still doing most of the work, and is the one who does most of the nurturing to his daughter. As such, Ryouga is a very unique male character among the franchise who completely goes beyond the traditional "male role" ,   and the fact he's the Red Ranger makes it even more remarkable.


b) Yukito Sanjou/Abareblue : the effeminate hero
While Yukito has the classic role of the sarcastic hero and foil to the optimistic Red, he also has an effeminate look, being able to pretend being a high school girl in episode 24, and he was even briefly considered as playing the "bride" role in the "Kidnapping bride" episode (Ranru ended up being the bride, but he still disguised... as a nun). While otherwise, he has a manly behaviour, his looks allowed him to easily diguise as a girl.

c) Asuka/Abareblack : the fragile and sensitive warrior.
Asuka is shown to be a skilled fighter, even without transforming, and when he tranforms into Abareblack, he is able to make incredibly powerful moves, notably his elemental attacks, even able to defeat a giant monster by himself or creating a big wave (Splash inferno) used by Abarenoh-Slidon to defeat the enemies.
However, Asuka's more vulnerable side is shown as well. While Asuka uses very powerful attacks, he often ends up being exhausted because he uses them, and he would end up sleeping a lot afterwards, being temporarly unable to fight. Asuka is obviously a man who has been deeply traumatised by the incessant war he had to face since he was a kid. Once, his trauma was unintentionally awakened by Suke san, and he ended up being unable to transform into Abareblack, because of how the traumatic experiences he undewent messed his mind. Asuka's deep pain in losing Mahoro and facing the one he believed killed her made him also vulnerable, because he was blinded by hate. Asuka was also shown to make reckless choices, like when he used twice the Legendary armor to try to save his wife, twice losing control of it with devastating consequences.
Asuka and Mahoro are shown as pretty much equals, since they both show strength and flaws. Mahoro isn't just the girlfriend the hero has to save, even if unlike him, she isn't a ranger. While Asuka has indeed saved her, Mahoro has also saved him at least once. Besides, during the final arc, she's the one who's the driving force in the attacks against the enemies, because of her role as a spy. 

d) Ryunnosuke Sugishita : a non action mentor
The owner of the Dino House restaurant, Sugishita is an old man, who, like Emiri was unable to become an Abaranger because his body was too weak. While he became the father figure to the heroes, unlike most sentai mentors, he isn't a fighter himself, and his mentor role doesn't include a training role.In fact,  instead of being a commader, his role  is pretty similar to Emiri's, which is unusual for the elderly male ally of a team.

2-3 Abaranger's themes : an incredible exploration about how rape can damage a woman, but also how she has the power to overcome her ordeal

Abaranger's main storyline has a major plot involving Asuka/ Abareblack and his wife turned enemy, Jeanne/ Mahoro. The major theme of that plot was exploring their relationship, and how they would able to overcome a lot of ordeals in order to be again together.

Mahoro/ Jeanne is especially explored in the show, and her storyline is very interesting, because she basically is a woman who has been raped, believed she was betrayed by her lover, and had to deal with her trauma and eventually, overcome it in order to be able to have a normal life again.

a) A woman destroyed by her rape

Mahoro grew up with Asuka on Dino Earth, where they fell in love while they were forced to fight the Evolian. Mahoro was a major fighter among the Ryujin, as seen when she was sent in a very dangerous mission with her brother. While she was a skilled warrior, she ended up being captured by the Evolian with her brother. The Evolian God  Dezumozorya decided to introduce his essence in her body, in order to have her bear his "child". In order to weaken her strong spirit, he showed her images of Asuka being with another woman, bringing her into despair, because she believed Asuka wouldn't come to save her.   She was pregnant at that time, and the Evil God, takign advantage of her despair managed to force his essence into her body and her unborn child's body. Episode 32 shows Mahoro screaming in pain when the Evil God invaded her body, and, basically, pretty much raped her. While it's not a "classical rape", it's pretty much similar in spirit, Mahoro having her body awfully violated, and forced to have the essence of her hated enemy in her body.

Abaranger shows very well how Mahoro was completely destroyed by her rape. Abandoned by the man she trusted, having to endure seeing the offspring of her rape, she even renounced her former name. Since the evil god was too powerful, all the rage and hate she felt because of how she was violated ended up being directed against her former lover, Asuka. Because he wasn't here to save her, when she needed him, she viewed him as a traitor, and joined the Evolian in order to get revenge.
Basically, the trauma linked to her rape and her feeling of betrayal were the key elements who made Mahoro become evil. By giving up her real name, and becoming the Messenger of destruction Jeanne, she tried to stop seeing herself as a "victim" to become an "avenger" who would punish Asuka for his betrayal. Her main motivation was revenge, even if, in her eyes, she was not avenging herself, but she was avenging someone she wasn't anymore, Mahoro. Her desire for revenge was so powerful that she wanted to make Asuka pay by destroying the world, since he wanted to protect it. Her desire for destruction was also fueled by the power of the Dark Armor she inherited from her brother, after killing him (or more precisely, giving the final blow to her already critically wound brother, at his request).   Asuka was her main target, and she made everything to make him suffer, while she pretty much almost didn't care about the other Abarangers. Jeanne also had trouble dealing with Lije, which she saw as a rape child, even refusing to aknowledge being her mother, being sometimes pretty violent towards her, even if she sometimes showed a more caring side.

However, Jeanne was pretty much lying to herself; in order to cope with her pain, she tried to bury it by pretending to be someone else: but in fact, her pain was real, and the mysterious girl was very aware of it. The mysterious girl knew that in fact, Jeanne was crying, which is pretty much the tears linked to her violation. In episode 32, the mysterious girl forced Jeanne to face her memories. Asuka faced Jeanne a little afterwards, and when he realized Jeanne was none other than his wife Mahoro, Jeanne was at last able to be receptive in Asuka words, and at last realized that Asuka never betrayed her. At long last, she was able to confront her terrible memories, and she was able to become Mahoro again. However, her heart was still stuck in darkness because of the power of the evil armor, and in order to completely free her, Asuka decided to defeat her and have the power of the armor go to him.

b) Recovery and courage overcoming pain : a woman's victory

However, Jeanne survived, and had become Mahoro again, but she has lost her memories. During the next episodes, she ended up living with the Abarangers at the Dino House, while she slowly recovered her memories. That time at the Dino House was very important, because she was able to heal even more, being in a warm environment, with nice people, and even showing a maternal side with little Mai. I feel that these episodes brought major elements in Mahoro's development, because it allowed to show her kindness, but also her intelligence. When Mahoro at last competely recovered her memories, she wasn't the same woman she was before. She had the time to heal from her trauma, and was much stronger to confront the Evolian. When she was unable to free Asuka from the armor through her love, she decided to make one of the bravest stuff that has ever been done by a sentai character : pretending to become Jeanne again, in order to free her husband from the armor, and help the Abarangers to defeat the Evolian. In order to become Jeanne again, she managed to accept being violated again, in order to be more powerful. She had to make a very complex plan to free her husband, eventually succeeding. She even managed to keep her cover as a spy, while using her scales in her cheeks to make Asuka realize she was still his beloved wife.

Mahoro had other plans. Unlike the time she was Jeanne, she was able to aknowledge Lijewel as her child, even if she still believed she was born from her rape. At that time, she had managed to get strong enough to love her child, despite the horrible circumstances of her birth. Being able to save her daughter was a major driving force in her work as a spy. She showed amazing strength during that time, beign separated from her husband and friends, being forced to be with the enemy, pretending to be an ally, witnessing her Evil God rapist take over her daughter's body and being forced to face him alone. It really showed how Mahoro had managed to overcome her pain in order to save her family.
Eventually, with the help of the Abarangers and the mysterious girl, she was at last able to free her daughter from Dezumozorya. However, she ended up being the evil god's captive, despite a brave attempt to defeat him, and managing to stay defiant before him.

Moreover, she wasn't free from guilt. While she was an Evolian, she ended up killing her older brother, attacking her beloved husband, doing dreadful stuff, and it made her feel desperate. When Dezumozorya did his final attack on Earth, Mahoro was ready to die if it meant the defeat of the evil god, since she felt she deserved death. Even when Asuka rescued her, she was still vulnerable, and during an attack from Dezumozorya, Asuka and her almost died, accepting death as expiation for their misdeeds. However, Ranru managed at last to make Mahoro(and Asuka) overcome their despair by telling them that Mahoro's child was also Asuka's. As such Mahoro at last realized that her daughter hasn't been born from a rape, but from true love, her love for her husband. Because of that, Mahoro was able to gather more strength and she managed use her Dino Guts to survive her attack, while Asuka himself did the same. While Mahoro was exhausted from the effort, and ended up being unable to fight anymore, she was at last freed from her trauma, had her mind in peace, and at the end, was ready to rebuild her life in Dino Earth with Asuka and her kid.

This storyline is pretty incredible, and it's a very interesting metaphor of how a woman can be destroyed by a rape, but also is able to overcome her pain, and start a new life.
Having a kid show showing a storyline with such powerful themes is pretty incredible, especially with how subtly it has been shown. That tale of a woman suffering from rape, but also being eventually able to face and defeat her rapist, and start a new life is impressive, and obviously brings a strong message to women, how they can survive and overcome the consequences of abuse and rape : it's pretty a incredible female empowering message for a kid's show.

3 Conclusion

While a lot of sentai have shown pretty powerful female characters, Abaranger was unique, first, by having male characters in arcs more traditionally associated with women (especially, Abared's single dad life), but also by having a main arc involving a rape-like situation, how destructive it can be to a woman, but also how a woman can be strong enough to overcome that ordeal.
Because of that, I feel Abaranger is the most female friendly super sentai series.

Your thoughts?

Ninja Sentai Kakuranger and Journey to the West : a comparative analysis

Ninja Sentai Kakuranger, as a ninja themed sentai with Yokai themed villains, has obviously a Japanese theme. However, it's very striking to notice how Kakuranger has been heavily influenced by Chinese culture. Indeed, Kakuranger takes a lot of its elements of one of the most important novels of all Chinese literature : Journey to the West.
I must admit that I've not read that major novel and most of my knowledge about the it comes from what I've read on various sites, mostly Wikipedia. However, with that information, I was able to find very striking similarities between Kakuranger and Journey to the West, which i'm gonna detail in that following post :

1) Protagonists

Journey to the West's has four main characters, with very different personalities, who are traveling together on a quest, and must work together to face various obstacles, in order to stay alive for succeeding in their mission. In a sense, Journey to the West can eb seen as an acestor of the "sentai" concept. Those characters are one Buddist monk, who is the wise one, and three disgraced creatures from heaven, who protect him from danger and are his disciples.  Kakuranger's rangers show some similarities, since the leader is a wise princess- like young lady (Tsuruhime) who is helped by a bunch of slacker boys who have to help her in her mission (Sasuke, Seikai, Saizou and Jiraiya).
Except Jiraiya, all the main heroes have a Journey to the West counterpart :


a) Sasuke/Ninja Red and Sun Wukong (the Monkey King) : both are the major characters, arguably the main characters of their respective stories : they are strong, hot blooded, but also wise, and they both are the most important member of the group. Both are arguably the smartest of the group, even if at the start, they are involved in the quest for atoning for a sin ( Sasuke's involvement in the release of the Yokai, and Sun Wukong's various misdeeds in the Heavens). Sasuke is a monkey themed warrior : his mechas are all monkey (or more precisely ape) themed : which indeed fits his Journey to the West counterpart. Sasuke and Sun Wukong also share the ability to clone themselves (even if Sasuke's is just ninjitsu illusion). Sun Wukong and Sasuke both are, among their team, those who are the most able to see through the demonic enemies's deceptions. Sasuke and Sun Wukong  also share character development : they start as pretty medicore character to end up better at the end of the quest.

b) Tsuruhime/Ninja White and Xuanzang : both are the nominal main protagonist of their stories : Tsuruhime is the leader of the Kakurangers, and Xuanzang is the one who receives the mission to go the Dahila Kingdom to retrieve Buddhist scriptures. Since the other heroes of Journey to the West are his disciples, one can argue he is the nominal leader of the group. Both Tsuruhime and Xuanzang are the most virtuous of their group, neither in need for redemption for past sins, or showing sinful tendencies. It's true that they are also very different : Xuanzang is weak, naive and unable to defend himslef while Tsuruhime is skilled in combat and much less naive. However, both need the strength of their companions to face the obstacles in their quest, and defeat the demonic enemies.

c) Seikai/Ninja Yellow and Zhu Bajie : both have pretty much the same flaws: they are lazy, gluttonous and lustful. Indeed, most of the arcs involving both characters in their respective stories involve either their big appetite or their lust towards female characters. Both are also shown to be very strong and able to work a lot if they're motivated enough.

d) Saizou/Ninja Blue and Sha Wujing : both are involved in their mission to atone for a past sin (Saizou releases the Yokai, Sha Wujing for breaking  a vase from heaven). Both are also water themed warriors. However, the similarities pretty stop there, since Sha Wujing is pretty a low profile and polite character, while Saizou is the comic relief butt monkey of the group.

While Jiraiya doesn't have any counterpart, it's interesting to see that the characters both use a vehicle which is actually a supernatural creature : Xuanzang's horse is actually Yulong, a dragon deity while Nekomaru is a sentient  Yokai like cat bus.

2) Supporting characters and antagonists

It's interesting to notice how important deities are in both Journey to the West and Kakuranger : Journey to the West involves the Buddha and gods from the Buddhist and Taoist pantheon, while Kakuranger has its own pantheon, the Sanshinshou, three gods. In both cases, they are important guides for the main character's quest, and they are involved in helping the characters in their quest.

The antagonists of both Kakurangers and Journey to the West are "demons" supernatural beings who want to destroy the main characters for their purposes. In fact, Journey to the West, with its use of plenty of different demons that are eventually defeated by the protagonists, are pretty much an early instance of the "Monster of the week" theme seen in toku, and notably Super Sentai (including Kakuranger). Kakuranger's Yokai and Journey to the West's demons are both based on natural creatures or elements, often animals (most of Journey to the West 's demons are animal themed, while a lot of Kakuranger's Yokai are as well) and both usually disguise themselves as humans to deceive the protagonists. When the heroes face the demons, they are often involved in helping other people from the demons's misdeeds. Some of them show either appetite or lust towards either Xuanzang or Tsuruhime.

3) Storyline and themes

Journey to the West's main quest has two main aims : by retrieving the Buddhist scrolls, Xuanzang hopes to bring back some spirituality in a sinful and materialistic world and his three companions hope to find redemption by helping him. Kakuranger also has as a theme the way the world became too materialistic and mediocre, with today's youth more interested in slacking and messing around than being brave and virtuous. Indeed, Sasuke and Saizou are pretty much flawed characters at the beginning, and they are easily tricked by the Yokai into opening the cave where they were sealed. As such like Su Wukong and his companions, Sasuke and Saozou are forced to fight with a virtuous figure (Tsuruhime) to find their redemption and fix their mistakes. While Kakuranger is more about defeating Yokai, one key arc of Kakuranger also involved retrieving sacred scrolls, the Shinobi scrolls, which are very important to their quest. Journey to the West has the characters travelling trhough Asia, confronting demons as trials in order to fulfill their quest and find the scrolls. Likewise, the Kakuranger are also travelling through Japan, fighting Yokai.
At the end of the Journey, all characters find some enlightenment and have improved comapred to the beginning of the story. And both Journey to the West and Kakuranger have anothe rbig theme in common: the importance of being together to accomplish stuff that couldn't be done if all protagonists were by themselves.
Another important element is the prominence of comedy : both Kakuranger and Journey to the West have a lot of comedic elements, usually related to the main character's flawed behaviour.

I know that this analysis is flawed, because of my limited knowledge of Journey to the West, but even with the few elements I know, the similarities between both works of fiction were enough to be worthwhile of a blog post.
Your thoughts (especially from those who have read Journey to the West)?

Himitsu Sentai Gorenger : the one which started it all : a review after 24 episodes

1975 April the 5th : the first episode of Himitsu Sentai Gorenger airs in NET (which would become TV Asahi), and it's the start of the one of the most successful (if not the most successful) tokusatsu franchises ever : the Super Sentai franchise (while, until Ohranger aired, Battle Fever J was officially  the first Super Sentai franchise, Gorenger and JAKQ would be retroactively added, and anyway, Gorenger was the series which introduced almost all the core elements of the sentai franchise), which involved a team of heroes (usually five) who transform into colored suits which enhance their fighting abilities,  to protect the world against evil doers.

Since Gorenger is currently being subbed, I'm currently watching it, and so far I've watched 24 episodes and a movie. Here is my review of what I've watched so far.

1) Plot

The Black Cross army plan to destroy humanity and conquer the world. The International Secret Defense Organization EAGLE is created to counter them, but after a surprise attack from the Black Cross Army, five of their branches are attacked and every member of each them is killed except one. Those five survivors gather together, under the command of Commander Gonpachy Edogawa, and become the Secret Task Force Gorenger, in order to stop the evil plots of the Black Cross Army.
And... that's pretty all you need to know about the plot. Gorenger is an episodic show, and each episode is about the Gorenger stopping the evil plans of the Black Cross Army.
While there have been a few arcs here and there, notably the Atlantis arc (a three episode arc involving the Black Cross Army finding an ancient blimp and using it for their attacks) and , in a lesser way, the five first episodes, which involved each of the operatives who destroyed each ranger's former branch, most episodes are self contained stories.

2) Heroes and their allies 

2-1) Heroes

The Gorengers are part of a huge defense organization, EAGLE. Their headquarters are hidden underground, underneath a curry bar, the Snack Gon, which serves as a front. They are secret spies within the military.
They are able to transform into the Goranger by jumping and shouting "GO". Each suit has a specific color (Red, Blue, Yellow, Pink, Green), with a specific number of red (except for Aka, who has a yellow one) stripes. Their helmets have a black visor (except Aka's blue one and Momo's red one) and a number matching the number of stripes in the suit. The visor is themed after each hero's weapon. They wear either black (Ao, Mido and Ki) or white boots (Aka, Momo). The heroes are named after their color (the color name being in Japanese (an unique case in the sentai franchise, which usually uses English for the colors)) and each one is basically "colorrenger). The Gorenger have a roll call, each one using their name, and, at the end, all come together and Akarenger says "Gonin sorote" (the five united) and, with the others, "Gorenger"

a) Tsuyoshi Kaijo/ Akarenger : the leader of the Gorenger, he worked at the Kanto Eagle branch before its destruction by the Black Cross Army attack, during which he lost his brother. He has a red suit with one yellow stripe and his helmet has the n°1. He is a very professional leader, who can be harsh when he sees his subordonates not behaving in a profesional way. He's a skilled  fighter, and his signature weapon is the Red Byute, a whip (his visor is themed after it), which he uses to attack the Black Cross Army fighters and commanders. He's also the one who finishes the Gorenger Storm Attack, which destroys the Black Cross operative.  While he's usually a very serious leader, he is also able to relax and tease his teammates. 

b) Akira Shinmei/ Aoranger (played by the legendary Hiroshi Miyauchi) : the second in command, he worked at the Touhoku EAGLE branch before its destruction by the Black Cross Army. he has a blue suit with two red stripes, and his helmet has the n°2. He's the main one involved in piloting the EAGLE airship, the Variblune, and he cares a lot about it (for example, when the Variblune was stolen by the Black Cross army, he did everything to take it back). He's also a very skilled archer, and his signature weapon is the Blue Archery, a bow : his arrows almost  always hit their target. As expected, his visor is themed after a bow/arrow. While he's as professional as Red, he has a more relaxed attitude, and loves teasing his comrades, especially Daita/Kirenger. 

c) Daito Oiwa/Kirenger : a strong young man from the Kyushu EAGLE branch, he's pretty much the comic relief of the group. He wears a yellow suit with three red stripes, and his helmet has the n°3.  He's a big eater, and especially loves the curry rice from the Snack Gon, eating several large servings of it, often to the dismay of the Commander (who's also the Snack GOn cook). His huge appetite often amazes his comrades. He's not very smart, and has trouble finding the answers of the many riddles young Taro (see below) asks him. However, he's skilled in mechanics. He's also very hot blooded, often rushing into combat before thinking ahead. He's also very strong, using his body and his wrestling skills as a weapon  (his visor has a straight line shape , without any obvious theme).

d) Peggy Matsuyama/Momorenger: the lone woman of the group, she was from the Hokkaido EAGLE Branch before its destruction. She wears a pink suit with four red stripes and her helmet has the n°4. She's a skilled chemist, and she's specialized in explosives, as seen when she modifies the Gorenger Storm to increase its explosive power, or when she desactivates time bombs. Explosives are her signature weapon, as her earrings are bombs which she sends to her enemies. Her visor has a red hear theme, the same as her earrings. She also uses a mirror as a weapon when necessary. Peggy is as skilled in combat as her male counterparts, and is as professional and level headed as Aka and Ao.  She's also the one who starts the Gorenger Storm attack, sending the ball to her teammates.

e) Kenji Asuka/Midorenger : he's the youngest of the team, and comes from the Kansai EAGLE branch. He wears a green suit with five red stripes, and his helmet has the n°5. While he's dedicated to the fight, he's also able to make mistakes because of his hot-blooded attitude, which makes it being vulnerable to the enemy. His signature weapon is the Midomerang, a boomerang that is also his visor's shape.

2-2) Allies and arsenal

The Gorengers's commander is Gonpachy Edogawa. He's a no-nonsense general, who knows how to command his men and guide them. He's the heroes's mentor and he's very appreciated by his men. He's also the cook at the Snack Gon, and his signature dish is the curry rice. He's often forced to cook a lot of it, because of Kiranger's big appetite.
The heroes are also helped by a group of female spies, Yoko Kato  (Agent 007), Tomoko Hayashi (Agent 008), and Haruko Nakamura  (Agent 009), who assist the heroes whenever they can, notably by seeking info about the Black Cross Army's plans. Yoko has a  little brother Taro, who loves making riddles to Kirenger. Yoko deeply loves her brother, and the Black Cross army once used her brother as an hostage to force her to spy for them. The Gorenger are also helped by the different Eagle Branches in Japan, and by spies who try to get info from the Black Cross Army, often at the price of their lives.
The heroes also have vehicles, like the Gorenger machines, three motorbikes : the Red Machine, driven by Akaranger, and two motorbikes with sidecars : the Blue Machine,  driven by Aorenger, with Kirenger in the sidecar and the Green Machine, driven by Midorenger, with Momorenger in the sidecar.
Of course, their most important machine is the Variblune, a big aircraft propelled by helicopter blades, and which is equipped by different devices, like the Crane to seize big objects, a big aspiring tube to get people into it, and of course, explosive weapons to fight the enemies.
The heroes are also able to fly using the Birdie, rockets which are at the sides of the Gorenger's belts.
Their finishing attack is the Gorenger Storm, a explosive soccer-like ball, which Momorenger sends to her teammates, which pass it to each other. At the end, Akarenger recives the ball, who becomes spiked and sends it to the Black Cross operative which explodes after being hit by it.

3) Villains

The Black Cross Army is a secret evil organization which aims to conquer the wolrd and destroy humanity. Its leader is the Black Cross Fuhrer, a mysterious figure in a Ku Klux Klan-like  white robe and hood (starting with episode 20, his hood let see part of his head, which looks black with yellow glowing eyes. He's a cruel leader, who only wants to see destruction and death in order to take over the world. He hates the Gorenger for foiling his plans, and is very harsh towards his generals for their failures, notably when he threatened with death Sun Halo Mask after his failures, forcing him into making a final life-or death plan to destroy the Gorenger.
The main operatives of the Black Cross Army are called "Masks", and are pretty much robotic like monsters, which have a mask which has  a specific theme (like an object, for example a Iron ring, a sword, a gear, a skull, a razor a gas mask, hair, or sometimes, stuff like snake (Poison fang mask) a witch theme,  a rainbow, or a crescent moon.) Each of those operative usually only lasts one episode, and is destroyed by the Gorenger Storm.
The Black Cross Army also have commanders in chief, who have also a similar design. Two of them have been shown so far, Sun Halo Mask, a general with a red sun themed mask, who was involved in the African branch of the Black Cross army. He often uses backhanded tactics, like his final arc involving pretending to be betrayed by the Black Cross Army to lead the Gorenger into a trap, taking advantage of their honorable feelings, even toward an enemy. Sun Halo Mask stayed during 6 episodes (15-20) before being killed by the Gorenger storm after an epic fight against Akarenger.
The second commander is Iron Man Mask General Temujin, a general who was involved in the Gobi desert branch of the Black Cross Army. A dangerous general, who is careful not to underestimate the Gorenger, his intro arc was the big Atlantis plan, which lasted three episodes, and showed him as a skilled enemy.
Lastly, the Zolders are the Black Cross Army faceless black clad footsoldiers, who are the main workers and combattants against the Gorenger and their allies, and as assistants to the different operatives.
The Black Cross Army uses very cruel and vicious plans for world domination : those plans often involve :
- Building or stealing weapons of mass destruction in order to kill all humans, or at least EAGLE operatives or the Gorengers
- Discovering EAGLE headquarters, especially the Gorenger's base in order to destroy it
- In order to obtain weapons, their plans often involved kidnapping scientists who are able to build those weapons.
- the Black Cross Army often uses hostages for their goals, notably children ( like Yoko's brother or the scientists's kids) and they can even brainwash people into becoming fighter for them (notably, with Cyclops brainwashing children into becoming Black Cross fighters).
While their plans are eventually foiled by the Gorenger, the Black Cross Army's plans has however often some success,  successfully stealing dangerous weapons and destroying many EAGLE branches with killing many people ( the first episode being a good example). In a lot of cases, the Gorenger are only barely able to stop the Black Cross Army's evil plans.

4) Final Thoughts

Gorenger was the first sentai show, and, with the exception of the big robot part of the franchise (which was introduced in Battle Fever), was pretty much the series which brought together most of the core elements of the sentai franchise : the colored suits, with each ranger having a personal weapon, the roll call, the heroes's headquarters, the enemy group with the  mooks and Kaijin of the week  (which concepts mostly came from the previous Ishinomori toku shows, notably Kamen Rider : the Black Cross Army is very similar to groups like Shocker or Destron). While Gorenger didn't have any big robot, it however had the big machine, the Variblune.

Gorenger is a very episodic show, with each plot involving the Gorenger stopping a Black cross Army evil plot. The show has a Spy/Military theme, and most of the episodes focus on stories involving the Gorenger at work, escorting and protecting scientists or weapons, or trying to stop the Back Cross army from using powerful weapons and destroy Japan.   The show has a lot of emphasis on action, with a lot of fight scenes, which are usually very well done. The episode as such are often very fast paced, and as such, the show avoids being boring. One very interesting element is that the Gorenger often struggle in their missions and the Black Cross Army is able to have at least temporary victories. For example, they are often able to steal dangerous weapons from the EAGLE, or successfully kidnap scientists involved in making weapons, or get some info about EAGLE. A striking example is how Iron man Mask Tenmujin managed to get the Atlantis warship despite the Gorenger's best efforts. Sometimes, the heroes themsleves commit mistakes, like when Aka is deceived by Sun Halo Mask in episode 20, or Mido losing the very item he was supposed to protect because of his hotbloodedness, or Kiranger eating curry rice left for him by the enemy, and thus falling into a trap.  As such, a lot of episodes show the Gorenger trying to stop the Black Cross Army and when they fail, try again, learn from their mistakes and finally defeat the operative of the day. The episodes usually ends with the operative being surrounded by the Gorenger, who make their roll call, and, after a fight involving the mooks, the Gorenger kill the operative using the Gorenger storm. As such, the Gorenger are shown as strong, badass, and eventually saving the day, but often not without trouble, and the Black Cross Army is often shown to be a very dangerous enemy who is able to inflict a lot of damage before being at last defeated. That gives a real sense of danger, and the Gorenger avoid being boring invincible heroes.

The heroes and their helpers are pretty well done, with each hero having a distinctive personality, and all of them are very likable. The supporting cast is pretty good too. An interesting element of Gorenger is how the shows makes the heroes interact with each other, taking advantage of their different personalities : the interactions with Aoranger and Kiranger are very fun to see because of Ao's "cool" attitude is the perfect foil to Ki's comedic personality. Gorenger has a lot of scenes showing two rangers working together at the same time, which allows not only to focus on the characters, but also on their interactions. Several episodes allows most of the rangers to have at least one or two scenes focusing on them, which shows that all characters are seen as equally  important, even when they don't have the most focus. A nice touch in Gorenger is having a female heroine (Peggy) treated as a complete equal to her male counterparts. Peggy was one of the first toku heroines, and she's very well done, a badass character who is to be taken very seriously. Having her being an explosive expert makes her a very valuable asset to the team, especially given how much bombs and explosive are used both by heroes (most notably the Gorenger storm) and villains. It was pretty remarkable at that time.

The villains, while effective, are pretty one dimensional, and aren't very interesting. They are pretty typical 70's toku villains, very similar to those seen in previous shows, like Kamen Rider's Shocker. However, a distinctive element is the fac they're usually themed after objects, and their design is often pretty over the top.
Gorenger has a military/spy theme, and it uses it pretty well, but also doesn't forget it's a show targeted for kids. As such, while the show doesn't hesitate to show death and destruction, it has mostly a light hearted tone, with plenty of comic relief ( involving notably Kirenger and Taro), and fun interactions between the heroes. Having a regular kid character (Taro, Agent OO7's little brother) allows young children to have a character to relate with. That light hearted tone can also be seen with the villains, who despite being often very dangerous, have a pretty silly and over the top design, with the classic evil laugh and over the top speech.

All in all Gorenger is a good show, especially since it pretty much built a lot of the basic Super Sentai concepts, but remains a very formulaic show.However, it was a great start to a franchise that would find its peak in quality in the following years.

My current Super Sentai rankings

Since I did a Rider list, I'm going to hammer out my Sentai list now. At the time of this post I have finished Gekiranger, Magiranger, Gokaiger, Gobusters, Dekaranger, and Kyoryuger. I have seen 3/5 of Liveman, 10 episodes of Jetman, half of Dairanger, half of Shinkenger, 3 episodes of Hurricanger, 1 episode of Zyuranger, 2 episodes of Go-onger, and 1 episode of Goseiger. Jetman, Zyuranger, Hurricanger, Go-onger, and Goseiger will not be ranked on this list as I haven't seen at least half of those particular series. I've seen 6 or 7 of ToQger but it will not be on the list since I'm behind and it is too early to discuss it. Like the rider list, only the series I have finished will actually be numbered. I will likely do an updated list at some point once I finish more Sentai.

6. Tokumei Sentai Gobusters:

I don't know why but this show never really clicked for me. Its not that I think its bad, I was just bored with it for the most part. I was never left with the feeling that I had to watch it week after week. It got to the point where I would put off watching it for a few weeks and let the episodes pile up and then I'd blow through them with a marathon. I ended up doing that three separate times for this series. The ground fights were awesome though but that was about it. I liked Enter more at the beginning of the series because he would usually show up in some sort of disguise and that helped add some flair to the character. My favorite disguise is the panda suit from the amusement park episode. My favorite character in this show is Gorisaki. The mecha fights were ok for the most part though Great Gobuster's fights were just lazy and mostly involved it taking a few punches then poking the enemy with a spear to win. I wish they had elaborated more on the downside of their abilities though because Ryuji's weakpoint seemed like it could actually be fatal to him due to him over-heating faster and faster as the series progressed. By far the most infuriating episode in this show was episode 36 aka the Buddyroid Strike. That episode made absolutely no sense and had no reason to take place when it did. I really enjoyed its opening (well except for the 2nd one) and ending theme. The suits are some of my favorites because the leather creates a nice combination with the colored visors.

5. Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger:

This show is just meh and it never really wow-ed me. I don't like it but I certainly don't hate it either. I ended up doing separate marathons for it ever since episode 10 came out. My main gripe with the show is Daigo. Its a Daigo-centric show yet it honestly didn't feel like Daigo was important to the overall plot until the final arc. He also gets played off as perfect and can quite literally do no wrong. The show essentially tries to tell me that I should like the guy but all it did was make me dislike him more. My favorite character in the show is Ian as he at the very least can function with Daigo gone. While his rivalry with Aigalion wasn't touched on much, its climax was decent enough. I wasn't able to get invested in anyone else. Rameirez and Tessai's entire character arc should have been about finding successors and Sanjou should have replaced them sooner instead of doing it right at the end since he wanted to bring in Shinya and Yuuko. I don't usually mind the collectible gimmicks but the batteries tend to break the flow of fight scenes and slow them down too much for my taste. Other than that, the fight scenes were alright. I actually like the suits, especially the visors since they give the illusion of a wide-open dinosaur mouth. Though I don't understand why KyoryuSilver's helmet has fangs on it since a Brachiosaur is a herbivore. I also enjoy the theme song. The overall plot is slow and a lot of it feels like filler. I think Sanjou really needs a break from writing since he wrote this entire show by himself. He might be burned out.

4. Mahou Sentai Magiranger:

This was a fun and enjoyable show. Just about every episode is character development for the main five Magirangers with a bit of MagiShine's development thrown in and in my opinion the show does a decent job of fleshing out the siblings. My favorite of the siblings is Makito. For some reason I usually tend to gravitate toward the older brother type of character. I liked Wolzard/Blagel's plot-line and how honorable he was. His concept of honor still shined through N Ma's dark magic. I felt the focus on the theme of family was done well enough and its concept of magic coming from courage was great. It was a lot more interesting to me than Wizard's. It is a perfect catalyst for character development to me as I consider magic to be more of an inner strength that grows with the person using it. The best use of this would have to be in the lead-up to them acquiring the Legend powers. That arc had some great character growth for each of the siblings and showed why each of them were worthy to obtain that power. It also has the most detailed world out of all the Sentai I've seen so far. It had a nice mix of practical effects and CGI. As I said in my "top mecha control system list", I really like the way the main five control their mecha like a chess board and it is my favorite control method I've seen thus far in Sentai. Normally, I will skip through the opening and ending songs after the first few episodes to save some time but for some strange reason I just couldn't bring myself to skip through Magiranger's opening and ending themes. Its ending theme is also my favorite Sentai ending theme.

3. Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger:

It is a really fun show. It is more episodic in nature like a traditional cop show and lacks a traditional main villain for the most part. Not having a traditional main villain actually works well for the show as does its episodic nature. The only consistent villain is Agent Abrera who basically acts as a weapons dealer. He doesn't exactly want to takeover the world and his entire grudge against the Dekarangers is because they are getting in the way of his business. I think not having the Alienizers grow into giants for the most part and instead using their own giant robots during the mecha fights was a great idea. The enemy robots have some really nice designs as well. The mecha fights are nicely choreographed even though they have to use CGI to pull off some movements. The Alienizers have some great variety in terms of design, powers, and even motives for why they're doing what they do. My favorite of the main six is actually a tie between Umeko because she gets the best comedic scenes in the show and Sen because of his creative approach to the cases. All of the heroes get some great character moments. A nice touch is that they have to get permission to use lethal force like actual cops. Its opening song is great and really helps you get pumped up while its ending theme is soothing and has a great jazz feel to it.

2. Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger:

I really enjoyed Gokaiger. The cast was a lot of fun, they had some great chemistry, and I enjoyed seeing Gai nerd out during the show. Out of the crew my favorite character is a toss up between Don for his funny and creative fighting ability (which is something I was really disappointed that they changed about him in Gobusters vs Gokaiger) and Gai for his enthusiasm and fanboy-ness. Junya Ikeda did really well with the role of Gai and you could tell that he had a lot of fun with it. Marvelous' rivalry with Basco was awesome and he is one of my favorite villains in Sentai. I really like how the mecha Grand Powers were applied to Gokai-Oh. Their designs were brilliant to me because the mecha Grand Powers never over-shadowed the Gokai-Oh's original design (with Kanzen Gokai-Oh being an obvious exception) and you could always tell it was the Gokai-Oh even from far away no matter what got added to it. It was a lot of fun to see actors return even if I didn't have any experience with a lot of the seasons and couldn't tell you some of the returning character's names outside of their team and color. It never felt like I was missing something while watching this show. Even without any nostalgic connection to most of the actors, it still felt like an anniversary caliber season while still keeping consistent quality with the other Sentai I had seen at the time.

1. Jyuken Sentai Gekiranger:

I'm a sucker for martial arts related stuff so this series was right up my alley. From the music to the characters this show hits the sweet spot for me. The fight scenes are excellent, nicely choreographed, and have a great flow to them. The various martial arts styles used in the show make each fight scene fun and have some nice variety. I really enjoyed the rivalry between Rio and Jan. The show has really memorable villains including my all-time favorite Sentai villain: Long. Long is just a joy a to watch on screen and the actor really knows how to creep you out. Long is also one of the few destruction obsessed villains I like because he plans everything out and does it all out of boredom. My favorite character in this show is Mele because she was arguably the most pivotal character in Rio's development. Mele is that type of honorable character that I can respect a lot. It is also really awesome how the show goes so far to explain the origin of GekiJyuKen and RinJyuKen. I like the 7 Kensei and how two of them are references to real life marital artists. GekiTouja's design is one of my favorite mecha designs in the franchise and I like how its operated via motion control. It is one of the more agile mecha in my opinion. As for the suits, they do a nice job of representing each character's animal with my personal favorite suit in the show being Rio's lion armor.

Series I haven't finished yet: Since I haven't finished them yet, these are just my thoughts on them at the moment so they have no official spot in my rankings yet.

Chojuu Sentai Liveman:

This series is awesome! I really like this series because the villains have such a deep relationship with the heroes. They were friends, students, colleagues, and in the case of Megumi and Mazenda even roommates so the fight is very personal for the Livemen. I love how the show starts out with the first 3 Livemen just fighting for revenge against Volt and how they learn that revenge shouldn't be their only reason for fighting, they should fight to protect people. Though I do like that the revenge motivation isn't dropped entirely and its the entire reason Bison and Sai join the team. The villains are really great especially Kemp and Mazenda. Mazenda was the star of a really heart-breaking two episode arc in the first half of the show (that arc is my favorite at the moment). Ashura has also become one of my favorites. One of my favorite episodes in Liveman is the episode with Megumi's father. I love the way their actors played off each other. As for the suits, they have some nice detail on the helmets especially Yellow Lion's and I really like the colored glass in the belts. They are a nice aesthetic touch.

Samurai Sentai Shinkenger:

This was my first Sentai series but I still haven't actually finished it. I got about half way into Shinkenger but had to stop because at the time youtube was going through a toku purge and I forgot to pick it up again once I found new sources. The Shinkenger suits are among my favorite designs in the franchise. I absolutely love the sword-play used in the show because I'm a sucker for a good sword fight. Ryunosuke's dramatic reactions kind of annoyed me at first but he quickly won me me over with his sense of loyalty. I like the rivalry between Juzo and Takeru. I'm going to have to set aside some time this year to finish Shinkenger though I'll most likely have to start from scratch since I'm having some trouble remembering exactly what was going on when I left off.

Gosei Sentai Dairanger:

Another martial arts sentai and I'm about halfway through this series. I really like the suits and the mecha designs with Won Tiger being my favorite mecha design. The fight scenes are amazing and really well done, even the wire-works look completely natural in the show. Out of the Dairangers, Kou is my favorite even if I occasionally want to smack the kid for being a bit pervy. I really like the romantic sub-plot with Daigo and Kujaku along with Kujaku's story of revenge as well as how the battle against the Gorma has been going on for centuries. It really helps give weight to the struggle. I think I left off with the premier of Won Tiger or something close to that. Like Shinkenger, I'm going to have to set some time aside to finish this show.

That is my sentai list. If a show you liked got ranked really low on the list, it just means that it wasn't my kind of show or I couldn't get into it.

Toku Injustices: The Death of Birugenia in Kamen Rider Black

Hello everyone and welcome to the beginning of a series of opinion pieces called “Toku Injustices.” The main topic of these opinion pieces is that I look at something that happened in a Toku show (whether good or bad it doesn’t matter) and basically talk about why I found it either unfair, confusing, or just something that shouldn't of happened at all. 

(What's the deal...)

In this post I will talk about something that happened in one of my favorite kamen rider series of all time, Kamen Rider Black.  Now this post will contain some spoilers so for those who haven’t seen and Kamen Rider Black yet and don’t want to know some things I suggest that you stop now, unless you are interested.  In that case read at your own risk.

Now let me start by saying I really love Kamen Rider Black I find it to be one of the best examples of what Kamen Rider should be about.  It has a very appealing protagonist in Kotaro Minami who we instantly feel sorry for and root for as he not only battles the Gorgom but also has to fight his brainwashed stepbrother Nobuhiko Akizuki aka Shadow Moon.  I enjoyed the Gorgom a lot as not only do they have a lot of history but also it’s the cult like structure of them, the mixture of magic and technology, that not only makes them frightening to look at but interesting as well.  

(All of this I love so much)

As the series progressed the Three Priests weren’t getting the job done, so the Century King being impatient and running out of options decided to release a threat to not only Kotaro but to the Gorgom themselves.  That threat being Birugenia the warrior of 30,000 years ago who like Nobuhiko and Kotaro was born on a solar eclipse but unlike them was not given a Kingstone.  That rejection made him angry and want to revolt against the Century King and the Gorgom, this action was the reason for him being sealed.

(Holy crap who are you?)

Birugenia was always an interesting and dangerous villain because he had his own motives and agenda.  He wasn’t really a team player with the Gorgom High Priests and would even interfere with their plans just for his own benefit.  His own benefit being wanting to kill Kotaro and take his Kingstone for himself.  Birugenia would also attack Kotaro where it hurt the most, the people close to him.  That made Birugenia a terrifying presence in Kamen Rider Black and character the show needed in my opinion to provided a surge of energy and potential.  However it is with this character that an injustice occurred.

The injustice is that he died in Episode 35 at the hands of the resurrected Shadow Moon anti-climatically.  

(Just Like that he is gone...wait what?)

What?  Why do this?  Birugenia was doing awesome as a villain.  Birugenia did so much in the show in the 18 episodes he was in that to simply kill him off so easily was disappointing.  Some of the things Birugenia did were as I said before  personal attacks against Kotaro, kidnapping the creator of Kotaro’s Road Sector to make his own version of the bike, the Hellshooter (yes he gets his own rider bike!), to stealing the Satan Saber.  

(Birugenia with Hellshooter)

I understood the purpose of Birugenia’s death was to show how strong Shadow Moon was and how the threat level has increased.  Which  is fine, however to simply kill off the only main villain who was active enough to actually confront Kotaro head on and how easily he was killed is unsatisfying  and took away some interesting story lines that could of been pursued.  The way I would of done showing how powerful Shadow Moon’s presence is and also keeping Birugenia around they could have had Shadow Moon beat the crap out of Birugenia having the prideful warrior on his knees.  Sort of like what Tranza did in Jetman to Radiguet.  

(Something like this could've happened.)

Why couldn’t they have kept Birugenia on the show and have him interact with Shadow Moon another person with a Kingstone.  Wouldn’t of that been interesting to watch, every moment Birugenia would be on screen would be tense because at any moment something could happen.  Birugenia always wanted a Kingstone, it doesn’t necessarily have to be Kotaro’s Kingstone, it could have been Nobuhiko’s Kingstone as well.  With Birugenia still on the show with Shadow Moon, you would have a lot of story possibilities, like Birugenia sabotaging plans Shadow Moon would have, working in the background plotting a Coup d'état, maybe even have an episode where after confronting Shadow Moon Kotaro is beaten badly and in his moment of weakness is being hunted down by Birugenia after his Kingstone, have Birugenia’s Coup d’état fail and in his last moment of desperation fight Kotaro for his Kingstone, or even when Black does beat Shadow Moon and in Shadow Moon’s moment of weakness Birugenia kills him and steals his Kingstone.  Those are just some ideas that Kamen Rider Black could've done with Birugenia. 

(Hope nothing bad happens to you Shadow Moon like...)

(Kingstone Birugenia?)

            For me personally I loved Birugenia, loved what he brought to the table, loved what he did, loved how well his actor, Jun Yoshida portrayed him (for more info on how awesome Jun Yoshida is check out this blog post by Shougo B’Stard), and I wish he had stayed around to be the final villain or even just one of the final big bads Kotaro had to face before fighting Shadow Moon.  Something along those lines I think would have brought Kamen Rider Black to its full potential.  Now despite what I wanted Birugenia dying isn't the worst thing to happen in Tokusatsu.  Despite me sounding harsh and bitter towards the death I was okay with Birugenia dying, it didn't ruin the series it was just not the approach that I would of taken. I still love Kamen Rider Black from beginning to end but the death of Birugenia is one of the missteps the show took and turned the show from amazing to great.  Had Birugenia still been alive I feel the show and the conflicts would of been a lot more interesting to watch because now we have the two Century Kings and the wild card the rejected Century King all having their battles.  On the injustice scale, Birugenia's death is just a meh, it wasn't what I think Kamen Rider Black should've done but I am overall okay with it.

What does everyone else think of Birugenia, do you agree with my “injustice” towards the character, okay with what happened, or disagree overall with my thoughts?  Leave a comment below with your thoughts.  Also comment if you would like this to be a reoccurring series of opinion pieces that you would be interested in seeing.