Now that we've covered GekiJyuken, we get to the other school in the show. The RinJyuken school follows a survival of the fittest mentality. Your worth is determined solely by how strong you are. Due to that, there are a few power struggles within the group. It is a school dedicated to gaining strength usually by inducing fear and despair. The survival of the fittest mentality is shown really well in episode 3 because the Rinshi have to fight each other to the death in order to be promoted and gain their monster forms. There are a lot of Rinjyuken members so I'll mostly just cover the big name ones.
Rio:
Rio is the leader of the RinJyuden for most of the series. He trained with Miki and Gou under Sha Fu before pursuing the path of RinJyuken in order to become stronger. His desire for strength comes from having seen his family slaughtered in front of him by a monster as a child. In the beginning of the series, he sought to revive the Kenma in order to learn from them and become the RinJyuken King. Through the first two he learns to channel his hatred and jealousy, though the third Kenma proved to be more problematic for him. He pretty much forces himself to become stronger to overcome the third Kenma. When he becomes a Genjyuken user, he gains the power of the griffon.
Mele:
Mele is Rio's second in command and she loves him deeply. She is unquestioningly loyal during most of the series. When Braco tried to betray Rio, she took several blasts from the Gekirangers' cannon to develop a way to counter Braco's attacks. She killed Braco without hesitation. She is so loyal that she threw away an offer to make her live again because it would've required her to betray Rio. While she seeks to help him grow stronger she does fear for his safety. When she thought Kata's training was too dangerous, she revived Rageku in the hopes that Rageku would train him instead. When she becomes a Genjyuken user, she gains the power of the phoenix. I'll cover the significance of that when I cover Genjyuken in Part 3.
The Five Venoms:
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| This is my favorite scene of them. |
These guys are some of my favorites. They're nice power-house villains and they make for a great first arc for the series. All five of them got involved in their introduction fight. It was a really tense moment and the heroes barely won. Their arc provides some great character moments for Jan, Retsu, and Ran early on in the series. With Braco, we get our first power struggle in the show. Though he works for Rio, Braco's loyalty isn't actually to him. He tries to stage his own takeover of the RinJyuden alongside a revived Kademu and Moriya near the end of the first arc. Needless to say, this does not go well for them. Their fighting styles are a reference to the classic kung fu film Five Deadly Venoms. It goes further than that as their introduction in episode 4 is a direct reference to the sequence in the film where the master talks about his most successful and dangerous students. The set designer for Gekiranger even recreated each Venom's chamber from the film. The end of their arc leads right into the Kenma arc.
The Kenma: Like the Kensei, they are former pupils of Brusa Li, the founder of Jyuken. They were the instigators of the RinJyu rebellion and founded the RinJyuken school. Sha Fu and the other Kensei trained with them for many years so it makes their betrayal cut all the more deeply. The theme of three continues with them so I like to call them the Triangle of Hatred, Jealousy, and Anger. They teach Rio to grow stronger by channeling those dark emotions. They also represent the sky, sea, and land and their RinRinShi are also themed around that as well. I absolutely love their designs. Each of them has tons of detail on the suits and it captures the look of their animals really well.
Kata is the Kenma of the Sky and gains his power through hatred. His RinRinShi are themed around birds. He is the first Kenma revived and pretty much teaches Rio to grow stronger through hatred. His training was very dangerous for Rio. Thats pretty much all he does in the grand scheme of things. With that being said, he does feel like a heavy-hitter when he fights the Gekirangers and its usually a really tense fight so he does actually justify is his presense in the show. Out of the Kenma, he probably has my favorite design.
Rageku is the Kenma of the Sea and gains her power through jealousy. Her RinRinShi are themed around sea creatures. She joined the RinJyuken Rebellion because Sha Fu spurned her love for him. She is actually the most sadistic of the Kenma. Her training was actually a lot more dangerous than Kata's. She actually trains Mele as well as Rio. Her death in the show probably the most brutal of the Kenmas. Long pretty much liquifies her and its a rather fitting end for her given her sadistic nature.
Maku is the Kenma of the Land and gains his power through anger. His RinRinShi are themed around mammals. Maku is very prideful and it was that pride that lead to the RinJyuken Rebellion. When Brusa Li named his successor, he chose Sha Fu but Sha Fu asked him to choose Maku instead. Being chosen based on someone else's word rather than his own power really wounded his pride. Kata and Rageku were terrified of him being revived and for good reason. He is the strongest Rinjyuken user and he took control of the RinJyuden from Rio and banished him after Rio revived him. This pretty much causes Rio of force himself to get stronger so he can take on Maku.
Suits:
Rio's suit is probably my favorite suit in the entire show. That includes the Gekiranger's suits as well. There is a massive amount of detail in this thing. The sculpting on the chest-plate is great and you can see each individual tooth in the lion's mouth. The black and gold color scheme works really. My favorite part is probably the mane of blades on the side of the helmet. I love the Rinjyuden emblem on the belt and the silver blends really well with the gold and black.
Mele's suit looks great and it has a lot of detail. The green and purple work really well with the yellow highlights. It highlights the chameleon look really well. The sculpting for the chameleon head on the chest-plate is nice and I particularly like the red chameleon tongue coming down from it. The suit overall has this really nice scale pattern to it. The Rinjyuden emblem looks great on the belt.
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