Goraijers: Transition from Enemies to Friends of the Hurricangers

Among all the jerkass charachters that went through the defrosting development, the Goraijers are my favorites. More so than similarly developed characters like Gai, Hoji, and the Go-On Wings. I like all these characters as well, but I like the Goraijers even more not only because they're badass but they have a kickass backstory and strong character development. First to start off, they're from the Ikazuchi Ninja Academy, the rival ninja school to the Hurricanger's Hayate Ninja Academy. Initially the Goraijers were raised by their father to gain strength through emotions such as rage and hatred. Living off of these emotions for most of their lives, they strived to gain the power of "that." I won't mention what "that" is to avoid spoilers for those of you who haven't watched Hurricanger yet. They joined the Jakanja with the common goal of obtaining "that" and were cold blooded enemies of the Hurricangers. Eventually, they learned that in order to obtain "that," one of them would have to kill the other. They learned that their father cared nothing for their lives and more about the power of "that." After learning the truth they turned against the Jakanja, and initially formed a loose alliance with the Hurricangers and later Shurikenger. Besides having to deal with the issues from their dark and cruel father, Ikkou had a rivalry with the Jakanja's third spear, Manmaruba. Manmaruba had planted a scorpion egg in Ikkou's body and was on track to kill him on the next full moon. When Ikkou discovered he had the scorpion egg in his body he decided to accept his inevitable death as his "destiny." However, his brother Isshu served as Ikkou's balance and refused to believe that death was Ikkou's destiny. Ikkou also had a rivalry with Yousuke. Ikkou wanted to act cold to the Hurricangers and wanted him and Isshu to support them from the shadow, even though it was evident that Ikkou actually was fond of Yousuke. Meanwhile, Isshu was loosening up as he was starting to fall in love for Nanami. Eventually the next full moon came, and Ikkou was on the verge of dying. However, he was saved by Yousuke, who risked his life and tricked Manmaruba to give him a scorpion egg. Yousuke used this scorpion egg as an antidote to save Ikkou. After this incident Ikkou defeated Manmaruba and the Goraijers officially joined the Hurricangers and bonded together as friends. Still, they faced more hardships as the series went on. Manmaruba was revived and later, Isshu's past demons of his father and being from the rival ninja school would come back to get the better of him. Eventually Isshu as well overcame this issue. For me, while maybe not the best, the Goraijers development and backstory has a lot of good drama and is one of my favorites. For anyone interested in watching Hurricanger, I really like the series a lot. Of course, Hurricanger still has a lot more good stuff to offer other than the Goraijers but the Goraijers alone are more than enough to make it worth watching.