Sunday, February 9, 2014

Kyoryuger : a review part 1 : Heroes and allies







Now that Kyoryuger has fully aired, as I planned before, I'm going to do a big review of the show, and my review is going to start by an analysis of the heroes and my personal feelings about them.

1) The main six Kyoryuger

1) Daigo "King" Kiryuu/ Kyoryu Red

He's the main hero of the show, and he has by far the most focus in the show. He's the leader of the team, completely trusting his friends, and a typical brave, reckless, optimistic, even sometimes stupid red ranger.  He likes other people to call him "King". He's pretty much the one who holds the team together. Indeed, at the beginning of the show, he's the one who made the other heroes show their identity to each other and, instead of only meeting when fighting, made them become a true team of friends. Whenever he feels a teammate is in trouble, either during a fight or because of personal issues, he's ready to help him (or her), even if it means putting his life in danger, like when he helped Ian when he was fighting who he thought has killed his friend, or making Yayoi have faith in herself during the Plesioh arc. His trust of his partners is very strong, and even when he learned that Torin was a former member of the Deboth army, he's the first one to accept it, and of course, the others followed. As such, everyone in the team likes him, especially the girls (Yayoi and Amy who both have a crush on him), Torin, and Ian.
Daigo has also a very strong bond with his Zyudenryu partner, Gabutyra, a bond that has built itself in the first episode, when Daigo, by his actions, earned the trust of the big tyrannosaurus who never had a partner before. That partnership went even further when Daigo was able to use the Carnival Battery which made Gabutyra shrink as Minityra. After becoming Minityra, Daigo could use him as a Gaburevolver and transform into Kyoryu Red Di Carnival, which is basically Daigo fused with Gabutyra. Once becoming Kyoryu Red Di Carnival, Daigo could fight in a similar way as Kyoryujin, using the other Zyudenchi to become basically a "Mini -Kyoryujin" (with all the different combinations (Western, Macho, Kung Fu)), with each Zyudenchi becoming like small copies of the Zyudenryu.
Daigo has also a very strong bond with his father Dantetsu. When he was a kid, he was first wandering through the world with his father, but, once he became a young boy, his father left him to continue his search, because it was too dangerous to have him stay with him, but gave him an amber gem with a dinosaur teeth inside (it's later revealed that it was Allomeras's remains), and told him to follow the path of the strong dragons if he felt it was his fate. Since then, Daigo wandered the world by himself, wanting to be stronger and to follow his father's path.  During his travels, he met a young singer, Mikoto Amano, who became his friend, and would later protect her from Deathryuger, who wanted to use her as the key to control Zyudenryu Tobaspino. Daigo always saw his father as an example to follow. It's especially shown during the various appearances of Dantetsu throughout the show, when he gives good advice to his son, or even rescues him from his enemies. While Daigo was shocked to see his father seemingly working for the Deboth in the final arc, even killing Torin, he quickly realized that there was more than meets the eye, and that his father had a good reason to do so (he knew that his father was still his ally, because he could become Kyoryu Silver). At the end, he's the one who defeats Deboth in an one on one fight in the Frozen palace, helped by the Melody sent to him by his teammates, and managed to come back alive thanks to the Zyudenryu's help.
My opinion of Daigo: Daigo is really a stereotypical Red ranger, and it's both his strength and his weakness: he's a very charismatic main character, and really carries the show as a central character, but at the same time, he's often annoying, because he's written as a "too perfect character". Besides, even more annoying is the behavior of the other heroes, who can be basically called "the Daigo fan club", because of how much they admire him (even Ian, who calls him an idiot : the only exception is Tessai). Another problem is that, even by Sentai standards, he completely steals the focus from the other heroes : Kyoryuger is incredibly Red centric, even by Sentai standards, as Daigo has his personal Power up, he's the one to defeat Deboth, he's the central focus on most of the main arcs (only Torin and Utsusemimaru, and in a lesser way, Ian,  sometimes have some focus, notably because of their strong rivalries with some main villains), with Daigo's dad being by far the most important supporting character of the show : Kyoryuger feels sometimes like Kiryuger.

2) Ian Yorkland/ Kyoryu Black

Ian Yorkland is an adventurer archeologist, who was wandering the world with his friend Shiro Mifune to look for archeological artifacts. He's also a ladies’ man, who loves charming young women, using his charm, and most importantly, his ability to make them feel happy (but he's completely unsuccessful with Amy and Yayoi, though).  One day, he was attacked by the Deboth Legion, and he ended up being unable to save his friend Shiro, who was killed by a mysterious Deboth warrior hidden in a black cloak. He almost died himself, and was saved thanks to Zyudenryu Parasagan and Torin and soon became Kyoryu Black, with Parasagan as his partner. Ian's a marksman, and he uses guns as his main weapons, even if he at first doubted himself, because he couldn't save his friend with his marksman skills. While at first he was a solitary and cynical guy, soon after meeting Daigo, he started to act in a more relaxed way, after being able to save Daigo from the cloaked enemy using the Gaburevolver, and as such, overcome the trauma of his past. Ian soon became very fond of Daigo, and while he felt Daigo was an idiot, he still admired him.  He's also fond of Souji whom he calls "Boy". Ian often behaves in a rather frivolous way, especially when girls are involved, which pretty annoys Utchy and Souji.
Ian was the second in command when Daigo ended up possessed by the spirit of the Tyrannosaurus after using the Carnival Zyudenchi to transform, and showed good leadership skills until Daigo turned back into normal.
Ian also realized that the one who killed his friend was none other than Aigalon ( the cloaked enemy Ian defeated to save Daigo was just a monster Aigalon lent the cloak), and had a strong rivalry with him, even if Aigalon didn't understand why the killing of that human was such a big deal at first. However, when Aigalon worked with Endolf for the first time, he mercilessly taunted Ian about how he killed his friend in order to gather hate from Ian. However, Ian managed to keep his cool, in order to avenge Shiro with a cool head, confirming his potential as a supporting leader.
However, after Aigalon ended up being betrayed by his own allies and was doing all he could to protect Candelira, he was forced to beg his former enemies from help and as such, realized how the lives of others are important. While at first Ian couldn't stand Aigalon's requests, because of his past, he realized how his rival had changed by witnessing him sacrificing himself to save Candelira, taking a mortal blow from his Sadness Knight successor Aiserondo, and at the end, showed mercy to his rival, releasing his soul from the armor and avenging him by killing Aiserondo using Aigalon's own axe.
My opinion of Ian: Ian as a character had potential, as the second in command, an adventurer, a ladies’ man, and of course his rivalry with Aigalon. However, Ian never had enough focus to have those elements more explored.  Besides, his rivalry with Aigalon suffered from the inconsistencies in the way Aigalon was written, and during the second half of the show, especially after the Endolf arc, Ian's rivalry was Aigalon was pretty much forgotten until the final arc, and even then, Ian was only meeting Aigalon by accident, instead of looking for him to settle their rivalry. Likewise, his skills as second in command, his playboy personality were only explored in a couple of episodes. Ian was a good character, but he never had enough focus to show it enough.

3) Nobuharu Udo "Nossan"/Kyoryu Blue

Nobuharu Udo is a 32 year old man who is doing various little jobs in a company called "Jack-of-All-Trades Marufuku.  He lives with his widowed sister Yuko and his niece Rika and became the father figure in the house. At first, he was more ambitious, wanting to become a highly paid white collar, but when his brother in law died, he decided to give up his initial ambitions to help his widow sister keep alive his brother-in-law company. He didn't mind giving up his dreams to become merely a "little jobs" man, because what he really wanted was to make people feel happy, especially his sister and his niece.  One of his major motivations to become Kyoryu Blue was to be able to protect his family from the Deboth, even if he had to hide it from his family, especially his sister, and endure the fact that his sister disliked Kyoryu Blue. Rika soon found out about his uncle being Kyoryu Blue, and later, Yuko realized it as well, and of course ended up liking the fact his brother was Kyoryu Blue, even hiding the fact she knew about him to make him less worry. Because he's the oldest of the main team, he's been nicknamed "Nossan" by his teammates (a play with "Nobuharu" and "Ossan' (old man) much to his chagrin. Nossan also loves doing puns, even if they are pretty bad. Nossan is a very kind man, but whenever his family is threatened, he's able to be a pretty tough opponent. Unlike Ian, Nossan isn't successful with ladies. However, he managed to earn a pretty unlikely fan, who pretty liked his jokes and who was able to look like a beautiful woman: that fan was none other than the Deboth Knight of Joy, Candelira. As such, he played a key role in Candelira's redemption showing her she could be able to live peacefully with humans, and comforting her after Aigalon's death.
My opinion of Nossan: another character that had plenty of potential, as a family man, who became a Kyoryuger to protect his family. Unfortunately, like Ian, he didn't have enough focus to be explored, and most of the time, was only the guy who was making lame jokes; besides, since Yuko was the one who mostly was looking after Rika, he never really had the opportunity to be shown as a father figure (unlike Ryouga/Abared in Abaranger whose father role for Mai was explored in depth). Moreover, his rivalry (more like friendship) with Candelira wasn't explored enough either, even if it had its moments. Once again, he was a potentially good character that was only explored superficially because of a lack of focus.

4) Souji Rippukan/ Kyoryu Green

A young high school student and a very skilled swordsman, he belongs to a family of famous swordsmen, and underwent harsh training with his father Genryu. His father's harshness was very difficult for Souji to endure, as it was the reason his parents separated, and it made Souji a young boy who had trouble relaxing, and connecting with others. However, he knew that beneath his father's cold exterior, there was a very sensitive man, and it's the main reason why he chose to stay with his father after his mother left, even if sometimes, conflicts were unavoidable. Besides, like his father, Souji had the true spirit of a swordsman, and wanted to improve his skills as much as he could, by training on his own, and learning new techniques, like Torin's Trinity Strizer. Thus, he became a great swordsman by combining his own style and the teachings of his teachers (his father, Torin). When Torin had to sacrifice himself to fight in hell, the one he gave his sword was Souji, as the youngest of the team and his worthy successor as a swordsman. Moreover, thanks to his friendship with his teammates, he was able to show his feelings and feel happiness. However, his passion for swordsmanship made him pretty inept socially and he was completely unaware of the crush one of his female classmates had on him, and ended up hurting her feelings without realizing it.  He's also a very serious character, who is easily annoyed by people behaving in an immature way (notably Ian)
My opinion of Souji: As seen in that description, most of all the focus on Souji is about his swordsmanship. He's a high school student, but except interacting with a few schoolmates (and in a Kendo club (once again, swords are there), that aspect of him is hardly shown. His family history and his awkward relationship with the female schoolmate who had a crush on him are explored in two episodes each (and he has the honor of having two veterans Sentai actors playing his parents (interestingly, both played in the Sentai series airing thirty years before: Dynaman): Junichi Haruta (Goggle Black, Dynablack, Madgallant) and Sayoko Hagiwara (Dynapink, Ley Nefel)). Other than that, he's pretty much sidelined during the show; he doesn't even have a Deboth rival. Once again, a character only explored in a superficial way

5) Amy Yuuzuki/ Kyoryu Pink

She's a young college student from a wealthy family. Because her parents are in America for their work, she mostly lives with her butler Gentle, who wants her to be a good student and to behave like the upper class lady she should be. He had even her working in a part time job as a waitress in a restaurant, to learn about society. However, Amy is lazy; more interested in DVD and shoujo mangas (notably the "Love Touch" series) than in studying and behaving like a lady. She's a skilled fighter, especially with her kicks, and, like Daigo, she plays an important role in supporting her teammates, notably Utsusemimaru, Ramirez, Souji, or even Yayoi. While Amy credits Daigo in making the team hold together, Daigo credits Amy as well, who was there when her teammates needed emotional support. Amy has two unlikely fellow "Love touch" fans, both coming from the Deboth Legion: Torin and, more importantly, Luckyuro. As such, she managed to connect with the Fun Spy, as fellow fans, and it certainly helped in making Luckyuro turn good. While it took time to really realize it, she realized she had a big crush on King as shown in the final arc of the show.
My opinion of Amy : While her background " rich lady, college student, who still has a part time job"  was interesting, Amy ended up as a completely stereotypical "girl pink ranger", mostly there to emotionally support her teammates and her arc involving her having a crush on Daigo was really forced and should have been avoided. Once again, a wasted character which didn't have enough focus, and when she had, she was a stereotype, even by Sentai standards.

6) Utsusemimaru "Utchy"/ Kyoryu Gold

He's from the Sengoku era. 400 years, ago, soon after becoming Kyoryu Gold, he became a samurai under the orders of a young lord named Iwaizumi (who looked like Daigo), in order to help him against the attack of the Deboth which at the time were led by Dogold. However, during an attack, he ended up deceived by a Debo Monster and a Zorima disguised as a kid, and his lord scarified himself to save him. He felt horribly guilty because of this, and believed his compassion and kindness were his weakness. Later, Dogold and Chaos started to kill all the people he cared for. Utsusemimaru was so enraged by those killing that his anger against the Deboth legion reached an incredible level, even more when they were about to kill Torin. But that anger was exactly what the Deboth Legion was after, and because of that anger, Dogold, who is actually armor, was able to take over Utsusemimaru's body. Some years later, Dogold was frozen and when he came back in the modern era, he forgot that his body host was Utsusemimaru's. However, he was able to use the Pteragodon Zyudenchi and manipulate the Pteragodon Zyudenryu for the Deboth clan. A few weeks after being reawakened, Utsusemimaru's mind managed to awaken, but it's only after a very powerful attack from Daigo that Dogold's mask was separated from his body, and that Utsusemimaru's mind managed to be freed from Dogold's power. Utsusemimaru was furious when he realized Dogold used his body for evil purposes, and this rage allowed Dogold to take control again. Since then, Dogold and Utsusemimaru struggled for the control of the body, until Torin and Ramirez managed, thanks to their soul full of justice, to allow the samurai warrior to get rid of Dogold. As soon as he was free, Utsusemimaru was able to become again Kyoryu Gold and to be Pteragodon's partner. As Kyoryu Gold, he's a very skilled swordsman, with his signature move, Zander Thunder, and he's a very tough opponent for the Deboth legion. At first he was behaving very coldly with the other Kyoryuger, telling them bluntly of their weaknesses. However Amy quickly realized that it was a facade, and that in fact Utsusemimaru was a very nice and kind young man, who is shy when with young women, and she gave her the nickname Utchy and agreed to help him deal with the rest of the team. Of course, Utchy's kind character couldn't be hidden very long from the rest of the team, and Daigo realized it as well in a fight involving the Debo Monster responsible of his previous lord's death, and at last, he could become a full member of the team. Because he's from the Sengoku era and because he spent most of his life as a samurai, he has sometimes trouble dealing with the mentality of the people in the modern era and is very shy when with young women. Besides, he pretty much uses old fashioned language, using “sessha" to say 'I' and his constant use of the "de Gozaru". However, he's a very skilled fighter, especially with swords. Moreover, he has a very strong rivalry with Dogold, because of all the evil he’s undergone because of him, having his friends killed, being himself possessed by the armor. Dogold also enjoyed tormenting Utchy, calling him derisively "Utsusemimaru-chan", using his signature attack as well, and trying to get him angry. But thanks to his friends, he managed to be much more serene than before, and once, while he tried to save Daigo from the Deboth, he even managed to deceive Dogold by faking being angry to catch him off-guard. His rivalry with Dogold went even further when Dogold was fighting obediently under the orders of Endolf, because Utchy lost the last bit of respect for his hated enemy, who at least was a strong warrior with pride before. But in fact, Dogold was merely waiting for an opportunity to strike Endolf, whom he hated more than anything else, and during a last showdown,  Utchy and Dogold worked together to defeat Endolf, with Dogold borrowing Utchy's body without possessing him. Mortally wounded, Dogold had a last duel with Utchy, who at least acknowledged the evil armor as a worthy opponent. Seriously wounded as well, he managed to be revived thanks to the melody of his partners.
My opinion of Utchy: Probably the best of the main six rangers, notably because of the contrast of his very competent skills as a warrior and his awkwardness in civilian life. As such, he's able to show both a serious side and a funny side.  His rivalry with Dogold is well explored, and, unlike Aigalon, Dogold is shown as a very dangerous and serious enemy, hurting his opponent mentally as much as physically. As such, the rivalry between the gold hero and the lion armor is very intense and their final climax is powerful. A little issue is that, after his intro arc, he ends up more often than not becoming a background character, like his non-Red teammates. even if thanks to his rivalry with Dogold, he still have some nice moments.

2) Auxiliary Kyoryugers

1) Torin/ Kyoryu Silver

Torin is a bird looking humanoid creature who is the mentor of the team. He's the one who created the Kyoryuger, by having humans becoming the partners of the Zyudenryu, and he's been the mentor of the Kyoryuger in the past and in the present, as well as their partners while fighting the Deboth legion. In fact, he's himself a former member of the Deboth legion and the brother of Chaos, created by Deboth millions of years ago, and sent to Earth in order to destroy the living creatures in it. At that time, the dinosaurs were the dominant creatures on Earth. When Torin came, he was impressed by the beauty of the Earth and the dinosaurs and because his heart was deeply moved, he wasn't able anymore to be a destroyer, and rebelled against the Deboth to protect Earth.  When Deboth and Chaos attacked, notably with the Gadoma monster, Torin wasn't able to stop the extinction of the dinosaurs, only saving some of them as Zyudenryu. He even was able to become the partner of one of the Zyudenryu, Bragigas, but wasn't able to stop the killing of the Guardian Beasts, and Bragigas scarified himself to destroy Gadoma and seal Deboth's heart. However, thanks to those sacrifices the Deboth clan was stopped and Torin created the Spirit Base to keep alive the spirits of the dinosaurs.
At different times, the Deboth Legion tried to attack again in order to destroy Earth and revive Deboth, and Torin always fought to stop them, with the help of some humans who became partners with Zyudenryu, like the Chinese martial artist Tessai who became Bunpachy's partner during the 6th century, the European warrior Ramirez 500 years before modern era, and of course Utchy, 400 years before modern era. However, while he was able to stop the Deboth's ambitions, he had to see his partners die prematurely (even if they were able to come back as spirits), or in the case of Utchy, be possessed by the enemy. Torin felt deeply guilty of the loss of his friends, because he was the one who recruited them, even if of course all joined him willingly.  More recently, he found two powerful allies: Dr. Ulshade, who became Plesion's partner and fought as Kyoryu Violet and Dantetsu Kiryuu, who he acknowledged as the King chosen by Earth, and who became a very good friend. But it was only years later that he at last found what he was looking for millions of years: a full team of five brave young warriors who would be ready to fight with him as Kyoryuger. The fact that one of them was none other than the son of his friend Dantetsu made him even happier. During that time, Torin became a very good mentor for the team, both wise, but also very humble, who was admiring the courage of his young team members rather than scolding them, because he was well aware of his own mistakes and flaws and how he was putting them in danger. He's also able to show a funny side, reading mangas, watching Amy's DVD, calling Nobuharu "Nossan". He's a very skilled fighter, but because of his numerous fights, has been pretty weakened and was able to turn into stone if he fought for too long. Torin has also a very strong rivalry with his brother Chaos, who hates him because of his betrayal and because he wounded him during a fight. Chaos would do anything to hurt Torin, leading the cruelest attacks against him, like having Dogold possessing Utchy, reminding him how weak he is without his Kyoryuger and reminding him of his past failure, notably being unable to become Bragigas's full partner. It was Chaos who revealed to the Kyoryuger that Torin was a former member of the Deboth, and used an evil melody to force him to fight as a Deboth once again, and made him grow up to fight Kyoryujin. However, rather than hurt his teammates, Torin chose to kill himself using Kyoryujin's sword and told the Kyoryuger the truth about him. Fortunately, the Kyoryuger were able to revive him using their melody and the Guardian gems they had, and Torin was able to come back to life, deeply moved by the friendship his teammates showed him despite knowing of his Deboth past. Likewise, it's also thanks to his friends that he was able to find the courage to become at last a full partner to Bragigas (during the era of the dinosaurs, while he was Bragigas's partner, he wasn’t a full partner because of his Deboth nature, and as such, it played a big part of his failure in saving the dinosaurs) and become the flashing hero Kyoryu Silver, much to Chaos's dismay. As Kyoryu Silver, Torin was at last able to fight at his full potential, and became a strong ally, with his signature technique, the Trinity Strizer. However, Torin was aware that his final fate was coming. Indeed, in order to completely defeat the Deboth army and save Earth, he had to fight inside the Deboth hell itself to destroy it and the souls of the fallen Debo Monsters. As such, he asked Dantetsu to kill him, but allowing his soul full of justice to reach the Deboth hell, and Dantetsu did it, even pretending to join the Deboth army. Once sent into Hell, Torin started an intense fight against the Debo monsters souls, preventing them to come back to Earth, and soon, he was helped by the spirits of Ramirez and Tessai. At last, he managed to destroy the Deboth hell with the help of Ramirez, Tessai, and the newly reformed Candelira and Luckyuro, defeating Chaos as well who allowed himself to be killed to stop Torin and his allies. At the end, Torin's spirit, left with Ramirez's and Tessai’s at last, his mission fulfilled and with no regrets and a proud heart.
My opinion of Torin: as seen in this very detailed chapter, Torin is probably the most interesting character of Kyoryuger, as a mentor who showed wisdom, but also weaknesses. Because he's well aware of his failings, he's a very kind mentor. He has a detailed backstory, and is probably the only character that has at least as much focused as Daigo: he can even be seen as the deuteragonist of the show. While his design looks silly at first glance, his voice actor is very convincing, and it's obvious that Torin is a very serious character. His rivalry with Chaos is very well shown, and is probably the best rivalry of the whole show, because both have a leadership role in their teams, both know each other very well, which Chaos takes advantage to hurt his rebellious brother the most cruelly he can. He also shows plenty of development, because he feels he's learning at least as much from his young partners as they learn from him. He manages to overcome his doubts thanks to his team, and succeeded at last to become himself a Kyoryuger, which he was unable to be for millions of years.  His sense of humor helps balance his serious side, and makes him feel less of a distant mentor figure, and more of a teammate. As such, he's very liked by his young companions. Torin is really a good mentor, a good character, and probably, the biggest reason Kyoryuger is a good show.

2) Ramirez/ Kyoryu Cyan

He's Ankydon's partner. 500 years before the beginning of the show, he joined Torin in his fights against the Deboth army, and became Kyoryu Cyan and Ankydon's partner. Sadly, he died in battle, but managed to come back as a spirit ranger. He first appeared to the team when he needed their help to save his partner Ankydon from the evil influence of Debo Virusun, who had taken control of him. Because of that, he was in danger of disappearing, because Ankydon's spirit wasn't strong enough to keep his spirit ranger power alive very long. However, Amy managed to trick Debo Virusun out of Ankydon's body, and as such, allowing Ramirez to change into Kyoryu Cyan using Ankydon's Zyudenchi. Afterwards, Ramirez regularly came back as Kyoryu Cyan to help his friends, like when he helped Torin free Utchy from Dogold, or finding Tessai and Bunpachy, looking for the Guardian amber gems, and of course, fighting as Kyoryu Cyan against the Deboth army in several battles. During the final battle, he had to go to the Deboth hell to fight with Torin, and chose as his successor Yuko, Nossan's sister, because he witnessed her strength, determination and kindness. Ramirez is a very kind man, always thinking of others before himself, completely trusting his partners, and with a very good natured personality. He's also a skilled fighter, using his massive body as a weapon. At the end, his spirit leaves with Torin's and Tessai's.
My opinion of Ramirez: a pretty okay character, who has the honor of being the first Caucasian Sentai ranger, as well as an overweight and elder one. He's not a very memorable character, but he has his functions in the show and fulfills it pretty well

3) Tessai/ Kyoryu Grey

A martial artist from China, who fought the Deboth army during the 6th century, as and Bunpachy's partner He's very skilled, but he's also aware of how cruel the fight is, and can't stand any naivety. Indeed, when he fought, his greatest fear was not being strong enough to protect his home and the ones he cared for. As such, when he met the Kyoryuger, he made them undergo a very harsh training to make them realize their weaknesses, and, as a result, overcome them and become stronger. Unlike the other Kyoryuger, he's very harsh against Daigo because he feels that his strength comes from recklessness instead of true bravery. As a result, he forced him to search what he feared. Daigo realized that his fear was to lose his friends, and by realizing it and fighting that fear, he managed to get the approval of Grey. Grey came back several times to help the Kyoryuger, like Ramirez, looking for the Guardian gems, fighting the Deboth army. One day, he discovered his descendant, Shinya, who was a mangaka, and the author of the "love touch" manga. He was furious to see his descendant doing such useless stuff instead of doing a more manly sport like rugby, but even more when he realized his descendant was afraid to see a big fan because he didn't want to show he was a man. He even tried to force him to see the fan himself. However, he soon realized that Shinya became a mangaka to make young woman feel happy, and when he saw people in danger, he would protect them despite of the danger. Realizing he had a worthy descendant, he acknowledged him as his successor, and when he followed Ramirez and Tessai in the Deboth hell, he allowed Shinya to become his successor as. At the end, his spirit left with Torin's and Ramirez's.
My opinion of Tessai: his biggest quality: he's not a Daigo worshipper and is harsh with him, unlike almost every other character of the show. He's also a very serious guy, blunt and obstinate, and a nice contrast with the very kind nature of the other Kyoryuger. Unlike Utchy, he's not faking when being harsh, since it's his true personality. While he can be prejudiced, he's able to admit his mistakes, like he did when judging his descendant.  Overall, he was a good character.


4) Yayoi Ulshade/ Kyoryu Violet II

She's the granddaughter of Dr. Ulshade, the first Kyoryu Violet, and her assistant. She's at least as smart, skilled in technology as her grandfather, and uses special glasses as a computer like device. She immediately rebukes Ian's attempt at seducing her. However, she has a very big crush on Daigo, having plenty of photos of him in her computer glasses. She's very affectionate with her grandfather, even if she has to endure his very over the top personality. When her grandfather went into the hospital because of a bad back, she replaced her as the technological expect for the team. Her first task was trying to have Plesion wake up and use his full power. However, she was unable to stop a revived Debovirusun to destroy the lab with Plesion, and she felt horribly guilty about it, and believed she was a failure. However, Daigo managed to give her a very needed comfort, show her she was much worthier than she believed herself she was, and as such, she was able to gather all her bravery to awaken Plesion, and become her partner. As a result, Daigo was able to use Plesion with Gabutyra and Bunpachy to fight an incompletely revived Deboth as Bakuretsu Kyoryujin and defeat the revived monster. Since Plesion acknowledged Yayoi, Dr. Ulshade was ready to make Yayoi his successor as Kyoryu Violet, and Yayoi was very excited to become so, because she always admired her grandfather when he was fighting as Kyoryu Violet and she wanted to follow her path. However, her first attempts were unsuccessful, and she again had low self-esteem. Attacked by a revived Debo Ice Age, she was filled with fear, as she wasn't strong enough to fight. But when Daigo and Amy made her realize that the reason she wanted to become Kyoryu Violet was her deep own desire to be Kyoryu Violet, and not show her worth to Daigo or her granddad, she managed at last to brave in and become Kyoryu Violet and showed good fighting skills. She soon left to train with her granddad in the lab, but often came back with new items, notably additional Zyudenchi, including the Carnival, Victory and Maximum Zyudenchi, which allowed the team to be even more powerful. She also was the one who showed Torin that he could overcome his fears and his feelings of worthlessness, and become a Kyoryuger, since she experienced the same. Other than her role as technological support, she also regularly fought as Kyoryu Silver, and at the end, fought with her grandfather in Plesioh. She has a big crush on Daigo, and showed jealousy towards other girls who were attracted to Daigo, notably the singer Mikoto.
My opinion of Yayoi: I like the fact she's the first Violet ranger, and the fact she was at last the second girl ranger in the huge Kyoryuger team. However, her obsession with Daigo made her more often than not an annoying character, which is a shame.

3) Allies

1) Dantetsu Kiryuu/ Kyoryu Silver II

He's Daigo's father and a very good friend of Torin. He learnt by Torin that he was chosen by Earth to be its ruler, as Torin and as a responsible ruler, did everything to save it from the danger of the Deboth army. He searched through the world the Guardian Amber gems, and indeed succeeded to find some, which he gave to Torin. At first, he was travelling with his young son, but once his son was old enough, he separated from him to continue his quest alone. He allowed Daigo to choose his path, and of course, he was very happy to see his son follow his footsteps in the way of the big dragons. He's a role model for Daigo, and not only his image was important as a role model, he also occasionally came back to help him, like during the fight against Debo Tanabata, or when trying to find the last amber gem to bring back to life Plesioh, or, more importantly, when he saved them from Dogold during the Debo Yanasanta plot. It's during that arc that Daigo learnt the truth about his father. After that fight, Dantetsu left for his final task, which involved fighting Earth's true melody. However, when he came back, he seemed to have become an ally of the Deboth army, going as far as killing in cold blood Torin. After killing Torin, he became Kyoryu Silver, and defeated the other Kyoryuger, without killing them though. He justified his killing of Torin as the wish of Earth, and asking Deboth to spare non-human living being of Earth in exchange for Torin's life. However, the true reason Dantetsu killed Torin was because Torin had to be killed to go to the Deboth hell, and destroy it from the inside, and Torin's death was in fact planned between Dantetsu and him. Daigo soon was aware that Dantetsu couldn't have joined the Deboth's ranks otherwise he would never have been able to become Kyoryu Silver and after a last showdown with his father, he managed to overcome his dad's big attack, and learn more about Earth melody. During the final fight, Dantetsu fought Chaos and Deboth mooks with Yuko and Shinya, and managed to kill Chaos, even if in the latter case, Chaos allowed to kill him to join Torin and the others in the Deboth hell and protect it.
At the end, Dantetsu leaves, asking Dr. Ulshade to call his son "King".
My opinion of Dantetsu: While he's pretty much as over the top as his son, he's still a nice character, because he's a mysterious figure, but still a good help for his son and Torin and his relationship with Torin is very nicely done. Indeed, it's thanks to that friendship that they were able to outsmart Chaos, who's a very smart enemy. Dantetsu is also a strong warrior, despite his age. All those elements make him a worthy character.

2) Yuko Fukui/ Kyoryu Cyan II

Nossan's sister and the mother of a little girl, Rika. Yuko is the widow, and it's obvious the death of her husband was very harsh for her, as seen in the episode with the Debo Monster Kokodoko, who made her see hallucinations showing her husband. However, she's also a strong willed woman, keeping alive her late husband's service company with her brother, raising her daughter Rika the best she can and tolerating her brother's lame jokes. At first she's very annoyed with the Kyoryuger, especially Kyoryu Blue, whom she sees as dangerous; despite the fact he saved Rika from Zorimas. Of course, she doesn't know that Kyoryu Blue is none other than her own brother, and Nossan who does everything he can to hide it from her. However, during the Debo Vacance era, she was able to witness how Kyoryu Blue did his best to protect others, especially her and her brother, and she discovered her brother was Kyoryu Blue (her niece learnt the true identity of Blue very early in the show). Besides, she was very annoyed when she saw that the Kyoryuger weren't helping Blue, dancing a silly dance instead, and she pretty much brought King to his senses by throwing a barrel to him. Later, she also played a key role in helping the Kyoryuger against a revived Gadoma, by leading the cheers of the crowd and giving them bravery. Yuko cares a lot for her brother and wanted him to have a girlfriend, and she unknowingly made him meet a disguised Candelira. At the time, she was hiding her brother she knew about him being Kyoryu Blue. She also had the opportunity to meet Ramirez, and she had the opportunity to show her strength when she attacked Candelira because she was deceiving her brother, and she even fought Zorima by using the voluminous Ramirez as a weapon. But she's also the one who chose to believe in Candelira following her brother's wishes, and the Deboth general was obviously moved by that. All those qualities impressed Ramirez, who chose her as her successor to become Kyoryu Cyan, and she was ready to fight the Deboth during the final arc, protecting her daughter against Zorima, and becoming Kyoryu Cyan to fight the Deboth army. Even when losing her transformation, she continued the fight with her Gaburevolver. After the fight, she resumed her quiet life with her brother and daughter.
A few words about Rika: She's a very cute little girl, very mature for her age, as seen with her quick acceptance of Kyoryu Blue and delighted her blue hero is none other than her uncle, and also how she wasn't deceived by Debo Kokodoko's illusions. Her first arc shows her obvious bond with her uncle. Unfortunately, in later episode, that link was only showed in once scene or two, and she never had much screen time.
My opinion of Yuko: She’s the character who had obviously the most character development despite having pretty little screen time (she appears in 9 episodes). While she's always shown as a loving mother and sister, she was also annoying because of her dislike for the Kyoryuger. As a smart woman, she soon suspected that her brother's friends might be the Kyoryuger. However, it's the Debo Vacance arc which showed the most significant development, by showing her acknowledging the value of the Kyoryuger, notably Kyoryu Blue, and even acting as the one who made the heroes stop their silliness, and help their teammates. Following that, she did everything she could to help the heroes, cheering her, and even, during the Debo Kantoku arc, helping Ramirez and fighting Zorimas. Of course, the climax of her development would be her becoming herself a Kyoryuger as Kyoryu Cyan, and being fully involved in the final fight. All in all, a good character, and a worthy role for the Sentai veteran Ayumi Kinoshita. Her daughter Rika is a cute girl, but she's completely underused, especially after episode 8, which is a shame since it didn't allow Nossan to have his role as a "father figure" explored.

3) Dr. Ulshade/ Kyoryu Violet I

Yayoi's grandfather and the first Kyoryu Violet. He fought the Deboth with Torin as Kyoryu Violet, protecting his granddaughter while doing it. He’s also the one who created all the modern arsenal of the Kyoryuger, the Gaburevolver, and the Zyudenchi, and it's thanks to him that the Kyoryuger have a strong technology to support their bravery. When he first appeared, he was coming back from a planet the Deboth destroyed and was gathering data from it. In his first appearance, he's shown to be a capable fighter, and rescued Daigo from Deboth mooks. However, he has a very over the top personality, loving to scream and doing big movements. Because of that, he ended up having his back blocked when starting a fight, and had to be hospitalized. Admitting he was too old to fight as good as before, he made Yayoi his successor, and became his trainer, but still came back as Kyoryu Violet for the final fight, using Plesioh, despite his bad back. At the end, he reunites with Yayoi.
My opinion of Dr. Ulshade: he's interesting since he's the one who introduced technology in the history of the Kyoryuger fight against the Deboth, as the creator of the Kyoryuger arsenal. However, his completely over the top personality, with his actor Shigeru Chiba completely overacting him, makes him a very annoying character, which is a shame.

4) Shinya Tsukouchi/ Kyoryu Grey II

Tessai's descendant and the author of the manga "Love Touch" under the pseudo Yuu Aoyagi. He was playing in a rugby team, but one day draw a very nice drawing to make the managers of the team feel better. Because they liked it, he decided to write a manga with a story inspired of his experience in a rugby team, and that manga became very popular, with Amy being a huge fan of it. Shinya asked Amy to visit a sick fan instead of him, because he was afraid that if the fan realized the author was a man, she would be disappointed. Of course, Tessai was furious of that behavior, since he believed his descendant was a coward and forced him to see the fan himself (who, unbeknown to him, was the Deboth spy Luckyuro). However, Shinya proved that he was not the coward his ancestor believed when he protected a young woman from a Zorima, and Tessai eventually acknowledged his descendant, even choosing him as his successor as. At the end, Shinya fought in the final battle with Yuko, Dantetsu and Yayoi.
My opinion of Shinya: since he only appears in three episodes, there is not much to say about him, but he's pretty much the living proof of “more than meets the eyes”: he a man who writes shoujo manga, but he's also strong and brave. As such, a nice touch that I love (pun very intended)

5) Others

Gentle : the butler of Amy : he's the one taking care of her, trying to educate her like a true lady (without much success), and being strict with her, especially when her college work isn't very well done. However, when he met a teacher Debo Monster who was at least as strict as him, he was horrified to realize he has a lot in common with such a monster. Gentle doesn't have much screen time afterwards, but it’s likely he became less strict with Amy, and the few episodes he appears in later show him helping civilians during Deboth attacks, cheering the Kyoryuger, and even fight himself the Zorima. As such, he ends up being a decent character.

Souji's father, Genryuu is also shown, a very skilled swords master who was the strict teacher of his son. While behaving very harshly, Souji knows that beneath there is a sensitive man, who blamed himself for the failure of his couple. Souji's mom, a fashion designer is also shown. While she wanted her son to stop risking his life in fights, she also realized, after meeting Torin (who at that time, used a human guise) that she had to respect her son's choices.


Final comment about the heroes and allies: while the characters are pretty uneven, some well-done (Torin), some pretty good (Utchy, Tessai, Yuko, Dantetsu), some being okay (Daigo, Ian), and other which are annoying (Amy, the Ulshades), and a lot of them are wasted (all the main Kyoryuger not named Daigo or Utsusemimaru), the cast is pretty diverse, and it allowed a lot of world building. Besides, the way the additional rangers are used, with their number of appearance being chosen skillfully, and the nice idea to make the rangers legacy characters, with a hero being able to choose a successor.

Saturday, February 1, 2014

Conflicted villains: a trademark of Riku Sanjo writing in toku


A key plot in Kyoryuger involves Deboth members doubting the destructive aims of their team and eventually leaving the team: Torin is pretty much the best case, since after seeing the beauty of Earth, he decided to protect it instead of destroying it, and became the worst enemy of the Deboth members, notably his brother Chaos. And, towards the end of the show, Candelira, Luckyuro and even Aigalon also begin to doubt, despite being very loyal generals.

It's interesting to notice that that theme has already been explored a lot in the two other toku show Sanjo was heavily involved in : Kamen Rider W and Kamen Rider Fourze.

In Kamen Rider W, the first main villain, Kirihiko/Nazca Dopant, who even married a member of the Sonozaki, which are the main antagonists, was at first a willing member of the Gaia Memories traffic, but after realizing the ill effects on the city he loves, he rebels, and ends up beibg killed by Saeko Sonozaki, his wife.
Likewise, Wakana Sonozaki/ Claydoll Dopant, wasn't interested in the Gaia Memory business during a long time, having more fun doing her radio show, Healing Princess, and she even became torn about her Dopant nature, notably because of her friendship with Philip/( the intellectual half of W). A key arc is her being torn between Philip and her father, and while she eventually chooses her father's side, becoming willingly involved in the Museum's plans, she did it because she thought it was for the greater good. And at the end, when she learns Philip (who is in fact her lost brother Raito) died to save her, she decided to sacrifice her life to save him, realizing he was the real savior of Earth among the Sonozaki family, by being Kamen Rider W.
The fact that Philip is a member of the Sonozaki family even adds another layer to that theme, as well as the fact that the Sonozaki mother was in fact Shroud, who was secretly fighting the Museum.

While Riku Sanjo wasn't the main writer of Kamen Rider Fourze, he still wrote plenty of episodes, and Fourze had a similar theme with W, the Zodiarts being similar to the Dopants. A lot of Zodiarts are conflicted about their destructive nature, and Gentaro tries as much to be the Zodiarts's friends as he fights to stop them. Even some Horoscopes show a moral side, notably Aquarius (her arc is written by Sanjo) and of course, Pisces who even became an Horoscope to help the Kamen Rider Club. Besides, not unlike Kyoryuger, the heroes have a mentor figure who is, unknown to them, a key member of the enemy clan (Tachibana/ Emoto/ Virgo Zodiarts, one of the first Horoscopes, and the main follower of Gamou, even if he secretly started rebelling, and, like Torin in Kyoryuger, was pretty much the one who created the Riders, Fourze and Meteor)

While those themes have already been explored (Torin has a lot in common with Master Kaku, and Kamen Rider Faiz is pretty much a war between the Orphenochs who want to destroy humanity vs those who want to protect it), Riku Sanjo has a lot of affinity for them.

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

My thoughts on shounen anime's Big 3

When the subject of anime comes up, inevitably one of 3 names will pop up in the conversation at some point: Naruto, Bleach, and One Piece. These three are by far the most popular anime in the world. Two of these anime suffer from main character syndrome. To clarify what that is, its a term I coined to describe the phenomenon wherein the main character is the only one who can do anything and gets insanely powerful simply because the plot says so while the side characters get reduced to background roles. Though one suffers to a much greater degree than the other. Anyway here are my thoughts on the Big 3:

Bleach:
For the record, my knowledge of the events of the Bleach anime only extends to how far the dub has gotten on Toonami and I haven't caught up with the manga. This is my least favorite of the big 3 for the simple reason that it has a tendency to drag and repeat itself during the canon arcs. The Hueco Mundo arc is the exact same arc as the Soul Society arc just swapping Rukia for Orihime and the Arrancars in place of Soul Reapers. The War For Karakura arc is where the show just hits the fan for me due to Aizen having the largest amount of plot armor/plot convenience I've ever seen. Seriously, it got so bad that I ended up doing a massive rant about Aizen. The less I say about Aizen here the better so just go check out my Aizen rant for my full thoughts on him. The show actually has some interesting filler arcs. My personal favorite being the Zanpakuto Rebellion arc because it gave you the feeling that they were more than just weapons used by the Soul Reapers. I almost cried when that arc ended. The overall plot for the canon portions of the anime simply boil down to "Aizen was responsible for everything up to the War for Karakura" so the plot really only hinges on him and Ichigo. Ichigo's personality is kind of hard to pin down since he has that generic "I will protect everything precious to me" type of personality and well he doesn't go very far beyond that. Ichigo suffers from main character syndrome and his friends often have to rely on him to save them (Orihime and Chad). Orihime's downgrade is especially stupid since she basically has the powers of a God and can reverse any phenomenon she wishes yet she is basically reduced to acting as a medic and mostly uses her healing shield. This show is by far the biggest offender of the 3 when it comes to main character syndrome.

Naruto/Naruto Shippuuden:
This is the one I'm more neutral on so it might be harder for me to put this one into words. Its better executed than Bleach that much is for sure, though Bleach has the more interesting filler arcs. The characters are alright and don't seem to constantly suffer from main character syndrome or at the very least not to the degree that Bleach's side characters do. It has a nicely built up world and I like its history. With that said I do have some issues, like Sasuke not being killed off yet. Seriously, Kishimoto kills off better characters yet lets Sasuke live. Its gotten to the point where even some of my friends who are Naruto fans are calling BS on it. Granted my knowledge extends more into the manga than it does the anime and I left off at the 4th Great Ninja War.The only reason I stopped reading the manga was because SJ magazine went all digital. Though from what I've heard, it might have been good that I stopped there as I've had some people tell me that the rest of that arc basically amounts to spring cleaning in terms of character deaths. This included two really shocking ones, Neji and Shikamaru.This anime had a strong start with some really great fights early on. My personal favorite fight is the Zabuza/Haku fight. Anyway thats about all I can say for this series.

One Piece:
Well what can I say about this one that hasn't already been said by other people. Out of the Big 3, this is the one people seem to love the most and honestly, I think that love is totally justified. The characters are lovable, the villains feel threatening, the world is nicely built up, and the plots are nice. The show just seems to have a knack for making the implausible plausible and making weird stuff look completely normal. Only in One Piece can a cola-powered cyborg shipwright, a skeleton musician with an afro, fish people (not just mermaids, actual fish people), and a shape-shifting talking blue-nosed reindeer that is also a doctor not seem out of place. None of the characters in this anime suffer from main character syndrome. The entire crew feels like they are actual characters and don't get reduced to background roles. Each member of the crew is able to hold their own in a fight, even Usopp who as of the Franky arc earned his spot as my favorite character during his fight with Luffy. Luffy is one of those Goku-remakes that is able to take on a life of his own and step out of Goku's shadow to become his own character instead of just an example of his archetype. The only thing I can think of that I dislike about this anime is the second half of the Foxy Pirate arc. The world is actually set up well enough to where Oda can write side-stories for some of the characters outside the Straw Hat crew. I'd personally love to see a side-story based on Buggy the Clown, Jimbei's adventures before becoming a warlord, the story of how Crocodile founded Baroque Works and a whole lot of of other things. While a lot of characters can be seen as over-powered, it is shown from the very beginning that no matter how strong someone gets there will always be someone stronger down the road. Every shounen anime/manga series will inevitably hit the point where they start to drag and One Piece is no exception to that but I don't see it happening anytime soon.

Sunday, January 26, 2014

Abaranger and Kyoryuger : two dinosaur sentai series that have much more in common than that





Abaranger and Kyoryuger, being both dinosaur themed sentai series, had obviously a their dinosaur theme in common. That said, the amazing thing is that both series have much more in common than merely that motif.
This post is gonna show how much in common both shows have :

Heroes

Both series have the heroes having very diverse backgrounds.

Red : Abared and Kyoryured have of course plenty of common elements : both are very optimistic leaders, who have a deep trust on their comrades, even when they seem reluctant. Both have also in their show a very important family member too : Ryouga has his nice/ adoptive daughter, Daigo his dad Dantetsu. Another striking element is that both of them have a Red-specific upgrade giving them special powers, with Abared becoming Abaremax thanks to Blue and Yellow's DinoGuts, and as such is able to fight his enemies in special dimensions, and Kyoryured, thanks to Gabutyra, becomes Kyoryured de Carnival, and is able to use the Zyudenchi in a similar way as Kyoryujin.

The relationship between Ian and Daigo has similarities with the one between Yukito and Ryouga : Ian and Yukito seem to mock their Red partner's behaviour as stupid, but are in fact very fond of him precisely because of that.

Both Nossan and Ryouga are uncles and father figures of a little girl (Nossan with Rika, Ryouga with Mai)

Both series have a female ranger who is a technology genius (Ranru/ Abareyellow, Yayoi Ulshade/Kyoryuviolet II)

Amy/ Kyoryupink  and Yukito / Abareblue are both from a rich family, and both work as employees in a restaurant (in Abaranger, all rangers do so)

Both series have an important high school character : Souji/ Kyoryugreen and Emiri Imanaka

Torin/Kyoryusilver and Asuka/ Abareblack have plenty of common elements which are :
- Both are non human : Torin as a former Deboth, Asuka as a Ryujin (while human looking, he's still non human)
- Both were regular characters, but during a time, weren't able to become rangers : Torin wasn't able to become Kyoryusilver until the November episodes, and Asuka, at the beginning of Abaranger, couldn't become Abareblack
- Both, as a result, are tormented by weak self esteem
- Both were involved in the fight against the villain group much earlier than the regular rangers :
- Both have a dark past: Torin as a former Deboth, Asuka, as the first wearer of the Dark armor
- Both have a mentor role towards the other rangers, explaining the context of the fight, and giving them their henshin devices
- Both, despite being mentor figures, are not patronizing towards their fellow rangers, but more grateful and even feeling that they are learning from them
- Both have a Brachiosaurus as a partner : and in both cases, the Brachiosaurus is a father figure towards the other Dino mechas (and even, in a way, to their partners)
- Both have family among the enemy group: Chaos is Torin's brother : Jeanne and Lije are Asuka's wife and daughter
- Both have been in situations when they were fighting the heroes against their will, under an evil influence: Torin when brainwashed by Chaos and Candelilla, Asuka, when he wore the Dark armor.

Allies 

- Both series have family members of the main heroes who become major allies of the heroes and playing key roles in the story : in Abaranger, Asuka's wife Mahoro (as the one who destroyed the evil armor and as a spy withing the Evolian,) and daughter (the mysterious girl was a very important ally, and once Dezumozorya and the other Evolian decided to get rid of Abarekiller, Lijewel did everything she could to protect him and had a key role in making him become the ally of the other Abarangers) ; in Kyoryuger, Daigo's father, Dantetsu is a key ally, searching for the special amber gems which will bring back to life Bragigas, he helped his son in many key moments in the  series, often saving his life, preparing him to Torin's real identity, and eventually becoming Kyoryusilver; even the final plot when he killed Torin was in fact a plan to help him, with Torin fighting within the Deboth hell; besides, Nossan's sister Yuko becomes Kyoryucyan for the final big fight.
- In both series, a plot involve a family member of a ranger seemingly joining the villains and fight the heroes, (Dantetsu in Kyoryuger (father of Daigo/Kyoryured), Mahoro in Abaranger (wife of Asuka/Abareblack) : and in both cases, that family member sends important info to the hero through a key physical contact with each other, allowing their spirits to meet,  during a big showdown.

Weapons, mechas and use of the dinosaur theme 
  
Because of their dino theme, Abaranger and Kyoryuger have of course both dinosaur themed weapons. Moreover, the rangers have a "supermode" involving spikes appearing in their suit (the Abaremode in Abaranger, the armed on in Kyoryuger)

However, it's with the mechas that the similarities with how the theme is used is striking :

- in both series the mechas are actually sentient dinosaurs, who are the heroes's partners (even in Aba the partner theme was more explored because the Bakuryuu were able to talk)
- Both series have a similar concepts with how the main robots are made, notably with Abarenoh and Killeroh in Abaranger, and Kyoryujin and Pteradenoh in Kyoryuger : both Abarenoh and Kyoryujin have much of their body being made with the red tyrannosaurus mechas, with the other dino mechas being used as arms, and most of the different forms of both robots are linked to arm switch, with a dino mecha replacing another ; likewise, Pteradenoh and Killeoh are mostly made of a pterosaur mechas, and, likewise, the different forms are linked to arm swithc with other dino mechas ; lastly, RaidenKyoryujin and Killerabarenoh, the combination of the two robots have a similar concept.
However, Plesion and Bragigas have no real counterpart in Abaranger
- As said before, most of the other dino mechas are used as arms in the robots
- Both Bragigas and Brachi are pretty much father figures to the other Bakuryuus
- Abaranger and Kyoryuger, as expected, alos have a lot of dinosaur/prehistoric reptiles mechas from same species : the classic Tyrannosaurus, Triceratops, Stegosaurus, Pteranodon, Brachiosaurus, but also Parasaurolophus, Ankylosaurus and Pachycephalosaurus.

Villains

-Interestingly, Abaranger and Kyoryuger's villains have a very similar concept : both have as main enemy a destructive entity coming from space long ago, but then stayed on Earth for a long time : Deboth and Dezumozorya are basically parasitic gods which aim is to destroy life : Dezumozorya absorbs all the life for itself, Deboth is basically a destroyer : both have a green theme, and both need to be revived, and to have a functional body. Moreover, most of the villains generals and mosnters basically are created out of the main villain, with Chaos, his generals, the Zorima and the monsters being created from Deboth, and Mikela, Voffa, the Bamias, Trinoids and Giganoids beign created from Dezumozorya
- In both cases, the fight against the evil entity started much before the beginning of the series,  with character involved in the fight before the core heroes (Asuka and the Ryujin in Abaranger, Torin, Ramirez, Tessai, Dr Ulshade and Utsusemimaru in Kyoryuger), and in both cases, those characters suffered huge losses, with a lot of destruction of life.
- Both series have a cursed armor as a major antagonist : Dogold in Kyoryuger, the cursed armor in Abaranger : and in both, a ranger was one of the victims (Asuka in Abaranger, Utsusemimaru in Kyoryuger)
- In both series, being born from the main villains doesn't always mean that you have to be evil : if the Evolian or Deboth creature is able to be touched by Earth and his living creatures, there is potential to become good : in Abaranger, Yatsudenwani (his love for Ranru and then, the kindness of the people in the Kyoryuya restaurant), in Kyoryuger, Torin (impressed by Earth and the dinosaurs's beauty) , and then Candelila  and Luckyuro (Candy is touched by Nossan's kindness, and Lucky loves manga)
- Both series have basically the female and kid member of the evil group turning good (Jeanne and Lije in Aba, Candelila and Luckyuro in Kyoryuger)
- Both have mooks based on protozoa life : the Barmia are amoeba design, the Zorima has paramecia design. 

A last few elements after watching the finale :
- in Kyoryuger, the "Earth melody" and how music give powers to the heroes  is a concept that is used in a very similar way as the "Dino Guts " of Abaranger.
- The final episode is in a lot of ways an homage to Abaranger's finale, notably with Red seemingly dying at the end, and all the rangers being sad, with the epilogue showing he's survived.

Thursday, January 23, 2014

Update on toku writers: Wizard and Kyoryuger






Kamen Rider Wizard

Tsuyoshi Kida (main writer) : 1, 2-3(with Komura), 4-5, 10-11, 16-19, 22-23, 26-27, 30-31, 34-35, 38-39, 42-43, 48-51 (27 episodes)
Junko Komura : 2-3 (with Kida), 6-9, 12-15, 20-21, 24-25, 28-29, 40-41, 44-47 (22 episodes)
Daisuke Ishibashi : 32-33, 36-37 (4 episodes)
Sho Aikawa : 52-53

A few comments: Tsuyoshi Kida completely shares the writing with Junko Komura who looks more like a co-head writer than a secondary writer. Like in Hibiki, the other Rider show he wwas head writer (in the first half) he works with another writer with which he shares almost equally the writing. Only one other secondary writer : Daisuke Ishibashi. Interestingly, those are  Ishibashi's first episodes in the Rider franchise; he was previously a secondary writer in sentai series.  Special case  : Shou Aikawa for the crossover final episodes involving Kamen Rider Decade, the show he had been the head writer of.



Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger

All 48 episodes written by Riku Sanjo, the main writer.

Several comments : Kyoryuger is the first sentai show where Riku Sanjo is involved, and  his first as main writer. It's also the first sentai series completely written by the main writer; even writers like Inoue and Uehara, who had written toku shows completely (Inoue has written all or almost all of his Rider shows as main writer, and Uehara has written all of Shaider and most of his other Metal Hero shows) have always shared the writing of sentai shows with other writers.
Besides, Riku Sanjo had already been involved in Rider series : he was the main writer of Kamen Rider W and main secondary writer of Kamen Rider Fourze. And unlike most Rider writers, he shared the writing of W with other writers, notably Hasegawa ( they almost shared the writing like Kida did with Komura in Wizard, see above). So, it's interesting to see him, who has worked on Rider shows where the writing was highly shared, to write his first sentai series all by himself.





Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Sentai teams sorted by their type of supporting team : an analysis



In 37 years (with a 38th series coming) of Super Sentai history, a lot of different teams clashed with different enemies in  order to save the Earth from evil or annihilation. Some teams were professional teams, other were people who started the fight pretty much by themselves. As such, sentai teams can have very different levels of backup from other people. As such, sentai teams can be sorted according to their supporting cast, which say a lot about how the team works and fights against the villains


1 Sentai teams with human or human-like leaders : professional teams 

Those teams have an older man (sometimes woman) who is the leader of the team, and their mentor. More often than not, the heroes themselves are part of a military or military-like organization, which fight the villains (for example, Gorenger, Battle Fever, Sun Vulcan, Changeman, Ohranger, Dekaranger, Boukenger, Go-Busters, part of the JAKQ staff (notably Red), and Red Hawk from Jetman) . Those organizations are either secret ones, or in other cases, known by public knowledge. Sometimes, the heroes weren't  initially part of the organization, but become involved with them because of the evil threat (good examples are the non red-Jetman, the Megaranger, Boukensilver). The mentor figure often have one or more assistant, usually a woman (either young or beautiful, or older), and the series may show the many employees of the organization, showing how huge it is. Often, a mascot character appears as well. 

Those shows are :
- Gorenger : military team (EAGLE) with a leader (Gonpachy), some female agents (notably Yoko Kato/ Zero Zero Seven, a young female agent who can sometimes become Momoranger to help Peggy), and troops: mascot characters are Yoko's young brother and a mynah bird, Gon. 
- JAKQ : Special force ISSIS, with Joker as its leader (and then Banba/ Big One, first mentor who's a ranger as well)), cyborg rodent mascot
- Battle Fever J: Military-like team, led by Tetsusan Kurama, some female assistants, with two mascot character : one of the assistants's little brother and a robot mynah
- Sun Vulcan : Military team, with commander Arashiyama, his daughter Misa as his assistant and a mascot talking robot dog.
- Changeman : military team (the Earth Defense Force ), with a human (or rather human looking ) general, and a big staff of soldiers and officers
- Jetman : Aya Odagiri, first female commander : while we don't see much more staff, the Jetman force is part of a big military organization
- Ohranger: military team, (UAOH), with an officer, commander Miura.
- Megaranger : INET, a big science organization, led by Professor Kubota, with a big staff of scientist, technicians and engineers, including Yuusaku/Megasilver
- Dekaranger : a special police force, led by the dog-like Anubian alien Doggie Kruger, who's also a ranger (Dekamaster) with his scientist assistant, Swan Shiratori, a Cygnan woman-looking alien. The Special Police has also plenty of staff.
- Boukenger : SGS (Search Guard Successor) Foundation, which is involved in discovering and securing dangerous items: while the mentor is mostly seen as a funny looking hologram in a screen (Mister Voice (later revealed to be a young girl)), the heroes are mostly helped by a bumbling but very competent engineer, Morio Makino
- Go-Busters : the Energy Management Center, led by officer Kurokin, with two main assistants, Nakamura, a young woman checking Megazord transfer, and Morishita, a young man checking Enetron flux and Metaroid creation.

It's interesting to notice that most of the oldest teams are among those: Super Sentai started by being about profeesional teams working in secret, but for an official organization: Sen Tai = Combat unit. 

2 Sentai teams with human or human-like leaders : intermediate cases between professional teams and amateur teams

In those cases, the teams don't belong to an army, police or science-like team, with official recognition, but are still teams belonging to a company that was created by the mentor-like figure to fight the threat, and became an huge organization. In those cases, the heroes either discover the organization when the threat appears, and join it (Maskman, Jan/Gekired from Gekiranger), or were already involved in it (the Hurricanger, the other Gekirangers, the Shinkengers). In a lot of cases, the mentor also has a female assistant, either a young girl or a middle age woman.
- Maskman:  Commander Sugata is the mentor of the team : Sugata's racing company is a front for his special force which fights Tube : Sugata has an important staff, with assistants, scientists, technicians.
- Gekiranger : the SCRTC (a sports company) being the front for a martial art school, the Gekijyuken, with the mentor Master Xia-Fu, a formery human martial artist teacher (Kensei) who became an anthropomorphic cat, his assistant Miki Masaki,  and the other Kensei (six martial arts teachers, who also took an animal appearance)
- Shinkenger : the Shiba House, who has been fighting Gedoushuu for centuries, with the mentor Hikoma Kusakabe and his big Kuroko staff

Special cases :
- Goggle V: the support team involve a mentor, two (with one leaving halfway) female assistant, and a team of five kids working on computers: however, the mentor leaves after 2 episodes to only come back in the 2 final episodes.
- Hurricanger : the mentor is Mugensai Hinata Ninja Master of the Hayate School a ninja school, and who is helped by his daughter Oboro : but in most of the show, Hinata is in an hamster form, which makes him feel like a "mascot mentor", but I still count him here because of his human origin; besides, because most of the school was slaughtered in the first episodes, the assistants here are robots.

3 Sentai teams with human or human-like leaders, but which are pretty much amateur teams founded by the mentor

In those teams, the mentor is pretty much the one who created the team by himself, after learning about the enemy threat against Earth, using all of his (or her) intelligence, scientific or (more usually) magic/mystic  knowledge to create all the arsenal (weapons, mechas, suits) to oppose the villains. In those cases, the team are learning of the threat by the mentor and join him afterwards. In a lot of teams, a mascot character appear. Those teams are much more isolated than the others, and have no public recognition : but the heroes have a mentor figure who can share his experience.

Those teams are :
- Dynaman: Dr Kyutaro Yumeno, who devoted his life contering the Jashinka and created the Dynaman team by himself : he has a mascot robot, the Kendo robot
- Turboranger: Dr Dazai, a scientist who managed to mix the magical power of fairies and automobile technology to create the Turboranger : the mascot character is here the child-looking fairy Seelon
- Zyuranger : the mentor is here the Sage Barza, who woke up the Zyuranger to fight Bandora : unlike most of the teams included in that group, the Zyuranger are experienced warriors already trained to fight : Daizyujin, the heroes's mechas, which combines the guardian beasts is actually a god, who also has a mentor role.
- Dairanger : Master Kaku, who recruits the Dairangers to counter the Gorma menace, and is their martial arts mentor : interestingly, he's himself a renegade Gorma.
-GogoV: the mentor is none other than the father of the sibling team, Mondo Tatsumi, who invented all by himself all the team arsenal, mechas and suits : he's helped by a little robot, Mint, and in many cases, by Gogreen's mentor, a young woman named Kyoko Hayase : interestingly, while the GogoV aren't professional warriors, they all have jobs in the rescue field (firefighter, cops, paramedic)
- Gaoranger : here the mentor is a ancient priestess, Tetom, who is the one who knows the most about the Orgs and the Power Animals. She chose the Gaoranger with the Power Animals, with which she has a strong link.
- Kyoryuger : here, the mentor is the bird-looking humanoid,  Wise God Torin : he's the one who has fought the Deboth threat the longest, since the dinosaur age, and, like Tetom, has a special link with the Zyudenryu, and is involved with them in choosing the Kyoryugers.  He's himself a renegade Deboth. Eventually, he himself becomes a Kyoryuger, Kyoryusilver.

Special cases :
- Kakuranger: the heroes have a mentor, Sandayuu, who only appears occasionally to give them guidance, but more often than not, the heroes are by themselves, especially since Sandayuu dies in teh middke of the series: the team's mascot is their cat-like bus, Nekomaru. 
- Abaranger : in that case, the mentor figure is an old man who's the restaurant owner, and who hosts the heroes during their fights. A young schoolgirl plays an assistant role, Emiri Imanaka. However, unlike the previous cases, he's only the father figure of the team. The mentor like team with the link with the Bakuryuu and the experience in fighting the Evolian is one of the rangers, Asuka/ Abareblack. The mechas, the Bakuryuu, are in fact sentient  robotic dinosaurs and partners of the heroes, with one of them, Brachio, also having a mentor role. 

4 Sentai teams with mascot like support team/ mentor

In those cases, the heroes are mostly helped by a mascot like character, either a robot or a fantasy creature, who is the one who chooses them, has the knowledge about the enemy team, and is helping them in the war against the enemies. The teams in those groups are certainly the most isolated among all sentai teams, since they have no real mentor. Sometimes, they can have a child friend, and even, in some cases, have a mentor figure appear occasionally (those last cases will be discussed in  the "special case" of that part). In a lot of cases, the heroes had pretty much to build themselves their arsenal, have to train themselves, and have no real mentor figure to look up. In some cases, the heroes have as companion a family, with the most important member being a young boy.

Those teams are:
- Denziman : the heroes are recruited by a robot dog IC, which has been left on Earth by the Denzi Princess with all the technology of the Denzi civilization and is the only creature who knows about Vader on Earth
- Bioman : the heroes are helped by the robot Peebo from planet Bio
- Flashman : the heroes's ally is Mag, a robot who was the Round base's guard until turned into a assistant robot by the heroes
- Liveman : the heroes's ally is Colon, a robot shaped like a young girl (here, while the heroes built their own mecha, Colon and the Live Base was created by one of their late Academy teachers)
- Fiveman : the heroes's companion is Arthur-G6, who pretty much raised the sibling team by himslef after the heroes lost their parents when they were little children: Arthur is also the team cannon
- Carranger : the mentor is an alien child named Dappu, who lost his planet because of the Bowzock: he often has to deal with the heroes's weirdness : as workers in a garage, the "family" involved with the Carranger is their boss's family, with the son often involved with Signalman
- Gingaman : because the heroes lost their home because of the Balban, their mentor was a wise talking oak, Moku : a talking acorn, Boku, was another mascot assistant. The heroes have as friend Yuuta, a young boy, and his bumbling father. Those human companions are the ones who give a home to the heroes.
- Go-onger : the heroes's companion is a little car-looking robot, Bomper : but, like in Abaranger, the mechas are sentient creatures, the Engines, who are the heroes's partners : one of them, Jumbowhale, also has a mentor role.
- Goseiger : very similar to Gingaman: the mentor is Master Head, a wise elder of the Goseiworld, the heroes are also helped by a cute human sized robot, Datas (who also can fight as a big mecha). The heroes also have a human boy, Nozomu, as a friend, with the father giving a home to the stranded team.
- Gokaiger: the heroes's companion is a robot parrot, Navi

Special cases :
 
- Timeranger : here, the heroes are professional cops (except Red) with the sixth ranger himslef involved in a professional security team led by a businessman who's none other than Red's father.
However, the time cops are stranded in an era  (year 2000) where they are pretty separated from their headquarters (which are in the year 3000), and only have as an ally in the year 2000, the owl robot Tak, which gives the info about the Londarz. While they manage to get their mechas from the future with the help of their commander, Captain Ryuuya, for everything else, they have to rely on the help of the only main Timeranger from year 2000, Tatsuya Asami/ Timered, who gives them a home and jobs.
- Magiranger ; the sibling heroes get their powers from their mother, but she soons disappears, apparently killed by a dark wizard, Wolzard. During the first arc of the series, they only have a talking plant, Mandora, as a companion and helper. However, when Magishine, the sixth ranger, appears, he turns out to be an experienced Heavenly Saint from Magitopia,  and becomes the siblings's mentor and teacher (and for Magiblue, eventually his husband). The Magiranger will also have some help from other people from Magitopia, notably Lunagel.


Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Guyferd : Toho's Kamen Rider like show


In 1996, Toho produced a 26-episode long TV show named "Shichisei Tōshin Guyferd (Seven Star Fighting God Guyferd) which aired on TV Tokyo. The aim of this post is to decribe the main elements of that show, and review it.

Story

Takeo Shiroishi, a scientist, working for the Crown company, was doing research about a parasite life form named "Fallah" for medical purposes . However, one day, during a failed experiment, one researcher turned into a monstrous creature after exposure to Fallah. While he was horrified by that incident, his superiors were thrilled by it, given that by becoming a monster, the researcher became very powerful. It was then that Shiroishi realized that Crown had nefarious purposes, doing research for military purposes, and likely, nefarious schemes. At the same time, Gou Kazama, a young man who had wandered through the world, notably Peru, went back to Japan, to investigate the disappearance of his older brother Masato. Soon after going back in the  Ken'nou-ryu dojo, where his brother was teaching, he ended up being kidnapped by Crown, and turned into a cyborg like creature, a Guyborg. However, when he was in Peru, he had been infected by the Fallah parasite, and, as such by the combination of his cyborg modifications and the abilities brought by the Fallah parasite, turned to be able to change into a strong warrior form, Guyferd. After escaping the Crown facility with Dr Shiroishi, learning about the nefarious plans of Crown and their potential involvement in his brother's kidnapping, Gou Kazama decided to fight the evil Crown and thwart their sinister ambitions.  He was helped by Dr Shiroishi and two young martial arts sibling students , Rei and Yuu Kujou.

Main Characters
In this part, I'm going to talk about main protagonists, the only characters seen through the whole show.

Gou Kazama
The main protagonist of the show, who was trained in martial arts, but wasn't motivated to fight, because of his pacifist mentality. However, after having his body modified by Crown and realizing that he was the only one who was able to stop the evil organization, he decided to start fighting. At first, he had trouble using his powers, but after meeting the spiritual mentor of the Ken'nou-ryu, he managed to  use the power of the five elemental "energies " ( Fire, Water, Earth, Nature and Metal) and the two ethereal energies (Air and Star), and turn those energies and his life force into deadly attack to defeat his enemies. Besides, as a trained and very talented martial artist, he was already a dangerous match for his opponents. While he is a good-natured man, he was very angered by the misdeeds of Crown. Moreover, he suffered from not being an human being anymore, even if his friend reminded him that the most important thing, his good heart, was still making him being human despite his modified body.

Dr Takeo Shiroishi
A scientist who worked for Crown until he realized their evil intents. After leaving Crown, he did everything to stop Crown's plans. He became Guyferd's mentor, and did the technology and investigation work for him. However, he lacks fighting skills and is often clumsy and often shows over the top behaviour. Despite those few shortcomings, he's a very good friend and an essential part of the team.

Rei Kujou
A young girl who was a pupil in the Ken'nou-ryu dojo. She has feelings for Masato Kazama, and, later for Gou as well. She's a very talented fighter, and the most down to earth member of the team, being the one doing the chores, notably the cooking. While she wans't able to fight the most powerful Crown minions, she was still able to be a good match for the footsoliers, especially after receiving special boots from Shiroishi, which made her kicks become 30'times more powerful.

Yuu Kujou
Rei's younger brother, and also a pupil in the dojo. He's a very talented hacker, being able to find plenty of information by pirating computers, and as such, helped a lot the team's investigations. He has good technologic skills, seen for example when he helped fellow hostages escape a Crown's building. He's also a skilled fighter, using special gloves built by Dr Shiroishi to strenghten his punches.

The team was often helped by a police officer, Detective Yuki Nakano, who was trying to investigate Crown despite his colleagues's skepticism, and often brought good help to the team, notably thanks to his police training and marksman skills.

Guyferd : a story in three main arcs

The main storyline is told in three parts, with the fight against Crown going into three different stages. Each of those parts has a different theme and different antagonists, and the following chapters are gonna describe each of those arcs, the antagonists and the themes.

First arc : Guyferd vs Bycross and his team : episodes 1-8

The first arc of Guyferd shows Crown as being an huge organization, involved in several areas of research, all of them aiming to create super strong soldiers and fighters, in order to take over the world. The leader of that organization was Bycross, a crime lord like leader, who had two main research teams. The most important team, at least initially was the team involved into cyborg reconstruction, with the creation of the powerful Guyborgs, the cyborg warriors of Crown. The leader of that team was Dr Minoh, a unscrupulous and arrogant scientist.  However, after the first Fallah incident and the realization of the incredible powers brought by it, the biotechnology team, involved in Fallah research started to get more importance, and its leader, after Dr Shiroishi's defection was an ambitious and cruel woman, Megumi Shion.

That first arc is mostly storyline driven, with Gou discovering his powers, and the major arc being Gou's quest for his missing brother. During that arc, Crown's main aim was to create the most powerful warriors, notably by using the Fallah parasite and turning humans into powerful monstrous fighters, the Mutians. Crown didn't hesitate to kidnap innocent civilians, even children to use them as guinea pigs for their twisted experiments. At first, Crown tried to capture Guyferd to analyse him and understand what was making him such a strong fighter, but, after undergoing important losses to Guyferd, then merely wanted him dead. Crown was interested in getting strong fighters to turn them into supersoldiers, either Guyborgs or Mutians: as such, they turned an arrogant teacher from the heroes's dojo into a Mutian, and Gou's brother, Masato, into a Guyborg. The final arc of the Bycross arc involved the kidnapping of an anti-terrorist unit to turn them into Mutians and build a strong army. However, that plan was thwarted by Guyferd, who at the same time, found his lost brother who was released at the same time as the kidnapped soldiers. However unbeknownst of Gou, Masato was in fact turned into a powerful opponent, Deathferd, fueled by his strong rivalry with his brother and his desire to duel him. Fed up with Guyferd's interference, Bycross decided to become himself a Mutian and fight Guyferd in duel, but while he was rescued by Deathferd after their first confrontation he was finally defeated by Guyferd during their second fight. It was at thattime that the true leader of Crown, the mysterious Zodiac, revealed himself to Shion, and asked her to destroy the Crown headquarters and kill all the research teams, only keeping the research data. She soon killed Dr Minoh, planted bombs in the Crown headquarters. However, while she was escaping , Dr Shiroishi tried to stop her and recover the researhc data, and when trying to go, she fell into a cliff, seemingly to her death. After a intense fight with his brother, Gou managed to get the upper end, but wasn't able to stop him from going back in the Crown's headquaters when they were being destroyed, and Masato apparently died. At that time, Gou and his friend believed that Crown was over.

That first part used a lot themes used in Showa Riders, with the hero feeling isolated because of his modified body, feeling an outcast among fellow humans, afraid of having other finding out that he wasn't an human anymore. As a result, he hid from his companions (except Dr Shiroishi) his identity as Guyferd, even if Yuu and Rei actually were admiring the fighter. Rei and Yuu only learnt about Gou being Guyferd when Shion, in her cruelty revealed the truth to the siblings, but, of course, it only made Rei and Yuu even feeling closer to Gou. Like in the Showa Riders, the enemy was a powerful terrorist like organization, using technology to transform the human body into modified humans, with the Mutians having an animal theme, like the Showa Rider Kaijins. Crown, like Shocker, had no qualms killing humans to advance their plans. An interesting element was to show Crown as an human team, with a leader and rival researchers, as in a classic military research facility and show those humans experimenting on their own kin, without any empathy for their suffering and killing innocents without second thoughs.

Second arc: the Fallah plan : episodes 9-16
During that second arc, Crown became more a completely hidden group, and used a completely secret base, without any official front. The leader was the unseen Zodiac, communicating with his generals thanks to a device having a stone dragon appearance. Zodiac had two generals working for him, the robotic Metal Master and a reconstructed Shion, who was revived by Metal Master and transformed into a Guyborg. At that time, Crown's true aims were revealed, with Zodiac wanting to wipe out the human race using the Fallah parasite, and have the world only inhabited by creatures transformed by Fallah. Zodiac tried to convince Guyferd into joining them, by showing him human's follishness and telling how similar he was to them, but to no avail, and the fight between Guyfed and Crown was more intense than ever, with Crown using Metalferds, which were guyborgs infected with the Fallah parasite, and having, as a result  similar abilities as Guyferd.
Unlike the first arc, that second arc was much more character driven. While in the first arc, Shion was fueled by her ambitions, in that second arc, she was driven by revenge against Guyferd, seeing him as the one responsible for her becoming a Guyborg and losing her humanity.
During that arc, each memeber of the Guyferd support team got a focus episode, one with Rei and a school friend, another with Yuu and a female friend of him, with his father being targeted by Shion, and even Shiroishi had a ficus episode with a former pupil of his and his awkward relationship with her. Another episode focused on a Guyborg hitman working for Crown and his dilemma when his next victim reminded him of his mother. Even Shion herself was shown t have hidden depth, with a backstory involving the tragic death of her mother. She ended up killed during a failed attempte to avenge her mother.
A theme explored in that arc is what it means to be human. Indeed, while Metal Master was a true machine, devoid of any emotions, other transformed characters, like Guyferd, and even evil ones like the killer and Shion, showed their human side by showing strong emotions, notably how Shion was driven by her revenge instead of being merely a cold blooded killer. Likewise, it's during those arcs that the protagonists were shown the most deveopment as characters.
That second arc ended up by Guyferd defeating Metal Master and stopping the plot involving spreading the Fallah parasite to the whole world by destroying a device where Shion's brain was stored and used as a vital part of the Fallah spreading bomb.

Third and final arc: the Gaia-net plot  : episode 17-26
During that final arc, Zodiac decided to involve himself in the plots, and, after the failure of the Fallah plot, decided to used mystical items to get rid of humanity. His plan involved using three mystical devices, linked to a mysterious tablet, the Daruga Tablet, to awaken a strong power which would be able to destroy all life on Earth. Zodiac was helped by a crazy scientist, Dr Kuzan, who wanted to have revenge on his fellow colleagues and prove that he was right about the Gaia-net powers. Zodiac used Gaia-Soldiers, Metalferds enhanced by the power of the Daruga tablet, to find the items and defeat Guyferd.
Guyferd and his friends tried to prevent Crown from getting the sacred items, with the help of a female archaeologist, but, unfortunately, two of the items, a tablet and a sword fell into the hands of Zodiac. The fights ended up more dangerous as ever, wit the loss of the heroes's spiritual mentor and with Guyferd even dying after a fight. However, at that time, he had been able to find the last item, a sacred orb which was able to resurrect him by fusing with him. Besides, soon afterwards, Gou was reunited with his brother Masato, who had actually survived and became his precious ally in their fight against Zodiac as Deathferd. However, in order to get the last item, Zodiac kidnapped Gou himself, while he was in a weakened state, and forced the power of the orb out of him to begin the Gaia-net destructive operation in Mount Fuji. Shiroishi, Masato, Rei, Detective Nakano, Yuu and the female archeologist managed to rescue Gou, and at the end,  Gou and Masato, as Guyferd and Deathferd  confronted Zodiac in  a last showdown which ended in Zodiac's defeat. However, the Gaia-net operation was already in motion, with Dr Kusan even bombing the headquarters in order to stop the two brothers from stopping it. Masato and Gou had to sacrifice themselves in order to save the world, leaving their friend into a deep sorrow, when they realized that the world was saved at the expense of both Gou and Masato's lives.
That final arc is certainly the most conventional of the three, with a basic arc involving a item hunt by both heroes and villains and a basic good vs evil plot. That arc was also noticeable by its  focus on mystical and archeological  themes, in contrast with the more science themed previous arcs.

 
Final review
Guyferd was certainly an interesting show, with a nice cast and an interesting protagonist group, with the hero's supporting team being a very useful help to him, even saving him from the enemy in several occasions. The interactions between the heroes was fun, and the cast had a nice chemistry.
Guyferd used very interestingly the theme of transformed humans and their consequences, the classic theme of old  Kamen Rider shows, especially during the two first arcs.
The most striking element of the show was its three arc structure, with each arc having a different theme. However, while that choice was an interesting idea, its execution was far from optiaml, with each arc often feeling disjointed from the others, and Crown's plans feeling inconsistent through the show. The third arc was especially weak, using in an excessive way the "killed and then resurrected" plot device, and often showing the portagonists as incompetent, losing in very stupid ways the items.
Masato's return came pretty much out of nowhere, even if it allowed Masato to have more interesting development after his pretty lame arc in the first arc.
One of the most interesting antagonists was Shion, who was involved in the two first arcs, and showed interesting development, being in the first arc an ambitious and unscupulous scientist, but, after her death and resurrection as a Guyborg, came back as a bitter woman, who hated being a Guyborg and was more driven by revenge than by ambition. It was interesting to see how she hated having become herself what she forced almost others to become without remorse, as a pretty ironice fate for her. While the attempt to make her look more sympathetic with her arc involveing her dead mother wasn't the most convincing, she still managed to have a tragic end, since she ended up as a living brain used by her former allies, and finally accepting death to be freed from her sorry state, being nothing more than raw living material used by Crown.
Guyferd had some nice fighting action, not only from the main hero, but also from his support team. 
Lastly, unlike most toku, Guyferd didn't end with a happy ending, but rather a bittersweet one, with the world being saved , but at the price of the hero and his brother's lives. This was a very interesting choice, which was pretty fitting in a show where the hero felt as if he was cast away from humanity because of his modified body, and  felt that their only role in the world was to fight the enemies (not unlike the Riders), even if they appreciated a lot the support that their friends brought to him. 
Guyferd, while not an awesome show, was far from being a bad show. It deserve a 6.5/10.