Globally, I pretty enjoyed Kyoryuger, which was a pretty
entertaining Sentai series, and I feel it really brought back the true spirit
of Super Sentai after the awkward Go-Busters. However, Kyoryuger has important
flaws, and because of them, it's not one of the best Sentai series made during
the franchise.
The Good
- Kyoryuger is exactly what it is supposed to be : a show
made to entertain kids, and it's very successful in being a fun show, with its
fun spirit, with catching music, dances, and very enthusiastic heroes : Kyoryu
Red is a charismatic leader, and his friends have really a great time fighting
with him.
- Kyoryuger also has a nice world building with the concept
of the fight between the Kyoryuger and Deboth army going on since a very long
time, and it has a very diverse cast of heroes of different eras, different
generations, and different backgrounds, even different countries and species :
there are ancient warriors from Europe and China, scientists, adventurers,
college and high school students, a family man
: there are even warriors belonging to the same family ( Daigo and his
father Dantetsu, Dr. Ulshade and his granddaughter Yayoi, and Nossan has his
sister (who's also the mother of a small kid) who joins the fight towards the
end) ; and the mentor is none other than
a former member of the enemy group, who rebelled because he would rather
protect life to destroy it, and who would become himself a ranger.
- The enemy group, the Deboth is not badly done either: its
concept is classic, but it has a very diverse cast as well; while some villains
are merely comic relief (Candelira, Luckyuro), other are very dangerous (Chaos,
Dogold, Endolf) and bring a feeling of danger.
- Kyoryuger has a reasonably well done storytelling with
plenty of narrative arcs, some of them being well written, like the Kyoryu Gold
intro arc (despite being very similar to the Gao Silver arc) or the Endolf arc
in the middle of the show; as such, the show mostly avoids plot stalling, with
even fillers having elements which would become important in more plot-heavy
episodes.
- There are some well-done rivalries between heroes and
villains, like Kyoryu Gold vs Dogold; Torin vs Chaos (made even stronger by the
fact both are siblings, and Chaos being basically the evil counterpart of Torin);
a strong rivalry between villains is the Dogold-Endolf rivalry
- Kyoryuger has some nice original ideas, like having
recurring Kyoryuger who appears sporadically to help the main heroes when it's
needed, with the use of seldom used colors, like cyan, grey or violet; the
concept of having some heroes passing their powers to successor was fine too,
and allowed some interesting surprised
- An interesting concept is that being part of the Deboth
army doesn't make you necessary evil : if a Deboth general begins to have
feelings for the universe he's destined to destroy, he is able to rebel, and
forsake his evil plans : it's the basis of the character of Torin, and it would
be the key element of Candelira and Luckyuro's redemption arcs (Candy liking
Kyoryu Blue, and Luckyuro enjoying mangas) : as such, Kyoryuger felt less like
a basic "Good vs Evil" show.
- While Kyoryuger is a light hearted show, it still has some
serious arcs which manage to bring a good balance.
The Bad
- While the cast of heroes is very diverse, it is
unfortunately very uneven, with some characters being especially annoying,
because either they are too much stereotypes, even by Sentai standards (the
Ulshades, Amy), or because they don't have enough focus to become interesting
(Souji, Nossan, the Spirit rangers, and even Ian): some of them are really
wasted, with Nossan's family man theme being not enough used (compare with
Abared)
- A big problem of Kyoryuger is that Daigo/Kyoryu Red has so
much focus it completely steals the spotlight from the others, with most of the
main story arcs being focused on Daigo: even when another hero has some
spotlight, it has to share it with him (the Kyoryu Gold, Kyoryu Violet, and of
course, the final arc are good examples). That excessive focus on Red is one of
the main reasons why most of the ranger cast is underdeveloped: the only ones
who manage to get some focus are those who have a rivalry with the villains,
like Torin and Utchy, and in a lesser way, Ian: it allows them to defeat
important generals, with Torin defeating Chaos with the help of the Spirit
rangers and Candelira, Utchy involved alone in Dogold and Endolf’s defeats, and
Ian being the one finishing the two Knights of Sorrow. The Kyoryuger Di
Carnival made it even worse, by making Red so powerful it didn't even need his
partners.
- Another problem with Daigo is that the other rangers are
pretty much a Daigo fan club: Daigo seems to only receive praise from his
partners, including Torin, the mentor: the girl rangers (Amy and Yayoi) are the
guiltiest in that regard. It doesn't make the dynamics between rangers feel
very interesting, since Daigo's leadership is never challenged.
- Some villains are inconsistent in their writing, like
Aigalon, which is either a vicious villain or a comic relief, and Candelira,
who had the problem of being an evil being involved in bringing joy to humans,
and being voiced and even played live by the cute Haruka Tomatsu. While, the
final arcs of those villains were reasonably well done, the writing was often
pretty awkward. As such, the rivalry between Ian and Aigalon suffered because
of that, notably because it was pretty much forgotten during most of the second
half of the show.
- The Zyudenryu are supposed to be the heroes’ partners, but
it's very seldom seen in the show: the only exception being the partnership
between Daigo and Gabutyra (notably thanks to the Carnival arc). While the
Zyudenryu are clearly shown to be sentient being, the interactions and the bond
between ranger and Zyudenryu partner is almost never shown, which isn't really
a good point.
- The storytelling also had some flaws, notably the late
introduction of plenty of new generals which never had enough time to shine,
or, some plot stalling, like between episodes 13 and 20. Most of the filler
episodes weren't very interesting, and the final romance plot between Daigo and
Amy was a pain to watch.
Globally, Kyoryuger is a good show, but not one of the best;
my final mark is 7/10
