Kyoryuger Through 16 Episodes

 In my previous Kyoryuger post, I mentioned how excited I was for the start of the series. Indeed, the first two episodes was an excellent and promising start to Sentai’s 37^th installment. Unfortunately, however, Kyoryuger has taken a downhill turn since then.

One of Kyoryuger’s main problems is the lack of originality in its plots. Originally it started out interesting with each of the characters sans Daigo keeping their identity secret. That was an interesting and original twist and could have been interesting if the writers decided to make it a season-long plot. The idea was dumped by episode four. Still I didn’t think dropping this plot was a bad idea and worked out well, but since then the writers haven’t figured out how to make a single episode original. Most of the episodes have been ripped off of episodes from other series such as Kamen Rider Fourze, Gaoranger, Hurricaneger, Abaranger Magiranger, and Go-Busters.

To be fair plots from previous seasons in Sentai are consistently recycled. It’s difficult to keep writing original episodes when you have a show that has been on for 37 years. However, it’s unprecedented to see how many recycled plots Kyoryuger has used in just 16 episodes. Furthermore, many of these plots feel like they’ve been watered down from the originals of previous series.

One example is the Utsusemimaru-DoGold plot, ripped off straight from the Rouki plotline in Gaoranger. The Rouki plot was an excellent story and the highlight of Gaoranger. Kyoryuger here has literally copied and pasted every point from that storyline including:

* A new villain introduced with the ability to control a spirit animal/Zyudenryu

* The villain ending up being a mask/body that possessed someone in the ancient past to save the season mentor.

* The person possessed becoming a 6^th ranger, separating himself from the mask who is revived as a villain.

* The 6^th ranger trying to act like a lone wolf out of guilt from a past event.

It also doesn’t help that the story feels a bit watered down and the execution was hurt by badly timed and failed comedy which I’ll talk about in a few paragraphs. To be fair, Ucchi has since then become one of my favorite characters and his history with his master who looks like Daigo was somewhat interesting, but it’s really disappointing to see a major storyline so blatantly ripped off from a previous series in your own franchise.

 To be fair, recycling plots can work if executed correctly. Sentai’s previous dinosaur-theme installment Abaranger had a plotline with Jeanne/Mahoro and Asuka which was very similar to Jetman’s storyline centered around Maria/Rei and Ryu. However, Abaranger executed it perfectly. In fact, Maria-Ryu was somewhat basic in its execution. The Mahoro-Asuka plotline added a lot more depth to this plot, showing Mahoro at one point being raped, frustrated by Asuka’s inability to save her, and for a long time questioning rather her child was fathered by Dezumozoria or Asuka. Not to mention both juggled between being good, wearing the dark armor and/or siding with the Evolien to save each other. It essentially perfected the original Jetman storyline and never tried to copy it point for point. Whereas, Kyoryuger has literally copied Gaoranger.

Another major problem with Kyoryuger is the ill-timed and often failed comedy. One such example happened in the previously mentioned Utsusemimaru-DoGold plotline. In episode 10 when Amy mentions she changes TV-channels with her feet. It was ill-timed because it happened so randomly in the middle of a three-parter which was supposed to be dramatic and serious, but stopped it in its track. It also didn’t help that the gag was not funny at all. Unfortunately, much of Kyoryuger’s comedy comes off as incredibly stupid, rather it’s because of some of the show’s lame attacks like love potions and fart bombs, or an annoying MOTW like the one in episode 14. 

The silliness of the villains doesn’t help either. Most of them (except for Luckyuro, who’s voice actress has
done a good job) come off as extremely annoying and child-like. Even the more serious villains like DoGold feel underwhelming. And really, for being a more serious and supposedly “menacing” villain, why the hell does Chaos put up with them?

Unfortunately, the biggest victims of this messy writing are the characters. I do like Kyoryuger’s acting cast and feel many have potential, but they’re being ruined by the script. Amy’s the prime example. I wanted to like her. I felt at the beginning of the series she could be a good combination of badass and cute, similar to Pteraranger or Shinken Yellow. But she’s been victimized the worst by the poorly executed comedy, with gags such as the love potion, using her feet to change TV channels, awkward dialogue between her and Ucchi in episode 11, or an annoying MOTW during times she’s supposed to shine. It also feels like the show is trying too hard to make her girly and bubbly.

Amy isn’t the only character suffering from bad writing. Ian’s personality suddenly changed from the brooding playboy to an overly nice guy with no explanation.  Ian’s actor I felt did great as the brooding playboy, but his personality has suddenly been watered down. If you’re trying to make him similar to Black Condor pay close attention to his development. In Jetman, it took Gai a long time to become a nice guy, and it was by gaining mutual respect for Ryu. It wasn’t an overnight thing which was out of the blue. Ian has also lacked focus, going 12 episodes before having a focus episode to himself.

Other characters like Shouji and Nobuharu are rather bland characters, with either no personality or one that consists of a lot of lame puns. It also doesn’t help that Nobuharu’s sister is an unlikable damsel in distress who constantly cries and complains. On that note, why the hell did they give Ayumi Kinoshita this crappy role? Do the producers and writers not notice that she played Jasmine, one of the great Sentai heroine of the last decade? I really hope Nao Nagasawa doesn’t have to play a crappy role in this series when she is due to show up in the series. Should I also mention, Ramirez has been ruined by the accent given to his character, which his actor clearly cannot pull off well. And really, why the heck do you need to give him an accent? The actor himself was born in Japan. He doesn’t need a weird accent.

On that point not all of the characters are that bad. Despite feeling like a carbon copy of Gentaro from Kamen Rider Fourze early on, I feel like Daigo is a likable character. His actor plays the character well with some charisma. I feel the same can be said for Ucchi as well, despite the fact again that his character is a carbon copy from GaoSilver. I do like the storyline they added with him and his previous master who looked like Daigo, and so far Ucchi is quite the badass. Like Daigo, I feel his actor has done a good job bringing the best out of his character. So on that note, these two are Kyoryuger’s saving grace so far. I still think Kyoryuger can still become a descent series if it stops trying too hard to be funny and find an original story to tell.

Super Sentai Idol: Actors and Actresses who Have Musical Talent

For a while I've been thinking about making a post on which Sentai actors and actresses who I think are great singers. In the past decade, many Sentai actors and actresses have sung their own character songs. While others throughout the 80's, 90's, and 2000's have sung theme songs and insert songs. There's plenty of Sentai actors and actresses that have good songs, but these are the ones that I think have the best singing talent (in chronological order). I'm including samples of some songs as well.

Daisuki Shima (Yuusuke)/Red Falcon Liveman



Yuusuke/Red Falcon sung both the opening and ending themes of Liveman. I'm not a big fan of 80's Sentai music, but I think both the opening and ending theme for Liveman are the best among 80's themes. My favorite of the two is the ending theme. Overall I think Shima has a good voice with talent.

Megumi Mori (Megumi)/Blue Dolphin Liveman



Megumi Mori began her entertainment career as a singer before taking the role as Blue Dolphin on Liveman. She sung the insert song "Spark Umi E" on the Liveman soundtrack. That song has a nice rock beat, as you can see on the top video. Megumi also has diversity in her music. The second song I'm showing (Hoshi no Namida/A Star's Tears if my English translation is correct), has a much more relaxed, peaceful tone.

Kenta Satou (Riki)/Red Turbo Turboranger



Kenta Satou (Red Turbo) sung both the opening and ending theme songs for Turboranger, as well as the opening theme for Zyuranger. The openings for both Turboranger and Zyuranger are popular among the Sentai fandom. I personally don't care much for the Turboranger theme song, but the Zyuranger theme song is one of my favorite Sentai themes.

Toshihide Wakamatsu (Gai)/Black Condor Jetman


Toshihide Wakamatsu, who played one of the most popular Sentai characters ever (Gai Yuuki/Black Condor), also sung the Jetman insert song, Honoo no Condor (Flame of a Condor). I think the song is good, but not great.

Nao Nagasawa (Nanami)/Hurricane Blue Hurricaneger


Nagasawa Nao - To you by KHproductions

I had trouble trying to find videos for Nao Nagasawa (Hurricane Blue), but managed to find them. She sung the Hurricaneger insert song "Shinobi Koi" (first video, from 7:03 to 7:28) and also had some mild success in the J-pop industry (her top song reaching #27 on the J-Pop charts). I think Nao has a beautiful singing voice and some diversity in her music (some rock, slower ballads, evens some salsa thrown into a couple of her songs). However, her music is mixed for me, and tends to range from good (like the song in the second video, "To You") to pretty bland.

Shou Tomita (Yukito)/Abare Blue Abaranger


This is the only song that I know of from Shou Tomita (Abare Blue), which is Yukito's character song. However, I think it's a kick ass song. Nice rock beat, and Shou sings it perfectly. IMO it's the best of the character songs by any 2000's Sentai male actor.

Ayumi Kinoshita (Jasmine)/Deka Yellow Dekaranger



Ayumi Kinoshita's song, "Hard Rain," (first video) I think is perhaps the best character song. It has a nice, up-tempo beat. While I don't think Ayumi's is the best singing talent, she's descent and the up tempo beat to her character song suits her well. She also sung the Dekaranger insert song "Girls in Trouble" (second video) with her Dekaranger co-star Mika Kikuchi (Umeko).

Mika Kikuchi (Umeko)/Deka Pink Dekaranger




While Ayumi Kinoshita has possibly the best character song, I think her co-star Mika Kikuchi (Umeko) is the best singing talent among any Sentai actor or actress. She has a beautiful voice that's made for slow melodies. Like other Sentai actors/actresses, she has a character song (Sunao ~ Ima wo Shinjite) (first video), and also sung an insert song on the Magiranger soundtrack (Tenkuukai no Yasuragi/Peace in Heaven) (second video). She's not only good at slower ballads, but at rock songs as well, like the song in the last video, "Chihei no Kanata."

Yumi Sugimito (Miu)/Go-On Silver, Go-Onger


Yumi Sugimoto also has a good singing voice that really shows in her character song "Yume no Tsubasa." She joined her Go-Onger co-stars Rina Aizawa and Nao Oikawa to sing the song "G3 Princess." That song personally I think is ok, but Yumi and Rina both have much better character songs.

Hidenori Tokuyama (Hiroto)/Go-On Gold, Go-Onger


While not an actual character song, Hidenori Tokuyama's song "Miss You" managed to make an appearance in episode 31 (the G3 Princess episode), which I thought was easily the best song in the episode. The song sounds kinda like country, which isn't my type of music, but it's still a good song (the full version of the song is in the video above. I think Hidenori displayed a great singing voice in the song, which makes it easy to listen to.

Super Sentai's Handling of Nostalgia

Like Power Rangers, Sentai has its share of seasons that have a nostalgic base. Here's a look at a few selected examples.

Gaoranger


Gaoranger was the 25th anniversary season of Super Sentai. Like its Power Ranger counterpart, it didn't really intend to dig deep into nostalgia. However, it did have a few nostalgic elements. The heroes' color scheme was the same as Jetman's and GaoYellow's suit even had wings that were reminiscent of Jetman. The main nostalgic factor used was Gaoranger vs. Super Sentai, which involved a team-up with GingaBlue, MegaPink, Red Falcon, and the Big One with a quick pose of all the previous red rangers. Personally, I thought the team-up was ok. I liked the storyline with each of the past rangers helping the Gaorangers to overcome their fears and anxiety, but there are a few elements IMO that detract from the show. For one, there's no previous Sentai villain in the show, instead they fight previously defeated Orgs from Gaoranger. Also, more than half of it feels more like a clip show and we have a little too much of the orgs fighting stock footage. Then all the red senshi do is seemingly just pose and do their rollcall which was again, stock footage. It's an ok team-up, but among the anniversary team-ups I like Boukenger vs Super Sentai is better.



With Hurricanger, I don't know if I would call it a nostalgic base season. It combined elements of Liveman (student academies and starting out with three members with two more joining later) with Kakuranger (ninja theme). However, it's not really intended nostalgia like Boukenger and Gokaiger are. However, I do think Hurricanger combines these elements with its own unique elements and still manages to have an awesome season.

Abaranger


Abaranger bares a lot of nostalgia to Zyuranger. The most obvious is the dinosaur theme. The blue and red senshi both have the same type of dinosaur as a mecha as their Zyuranger counterparts did (T-Rex and Triceratops), and the lone female character had a Pteradactyle-like mecha like the lone Zyuranger female character. Storylines, however, are vastly different. Zyuranger handled the Dinosaur theme like a fairytail, while Abaranger put it more into a modern context, taking characters from present-day Japan. Another major difference is that Abaranger uses modern science with a twist, explaining that the asteroid that hit the Gulf of Mexico 65 million years ago separated the Earth into Earth and DinoEarth, with Dinosaurs still living on DinoEarth, which is essentially another dimension. I haven't seen a whole lot of Abaranger, but I do think it handles the dinosaur theme better than Zyuranger, which uses it like a fairytale.

Boukenger


Like Gaoranger, Boukenger was an anniversary season. However, Boukenger was the first season to really dig deep into nostalgia. Many of the villains and villain mechas had designs based on past Sentai mechas. Also, many of the characters were based off of previous Sentai characters and there were some Jetman elements, such as the black senshi, Masumi, being the rebel of the group and having an inter-squad rivalry with the red senshi, Akashi. After the ending credits, Boukenger also had the 30 Sentai Encyclopedia, which paid tribute to all the previous Sentais as well as other various elements of Sentai. I think these elements were well handled and as mentioned above, I like its Anniversary team-up, Boukenger vs Super Sentai, better than Gao vs SS.

Gekiranger


Gekiranger, like Hurricanger and Abaranger, was another somewhat nostalgic season but may have not intended to be nostalgic. It combined Dairanger's Chinese martial arts with some elements from Gaoranger. The Gaoranger elements include the beast theme, CGI mecha's, and even some of the mecha's being similar to Gaoranger, such as GekiElephant looking almost like GaoElephant, GekiGorilla being similar to GaoGorilla, GekiShark and GaoShark, GekiGazille and GaoDeer, GekiTiger and GaoTiger, GekiWolf and GaoWolf, and SaiDain being semilar to GekiRino. Also, Gou/GekiViolet, bares some similarities to Tsukumaro/GaoSilver. Both fulfill the "6th ranger" role, both are initially lone wolf characters, both at one time used an evil power to try to defeat an evil enemy, and both have wolf-like powers. Like Hurricanger and Abaranger, Gekiranger had much different storylines than the series they used to combine the elements. I can't comment a lot on how it handles the Chinese martial arts theme compared to Dairanger, but I do think Gekiranger handles some elements better than Gaoranger. For example, I like Gou more as a 6th ranger and lone wolf character than Tsukumaro, and the CGI mecha's are better handled in Gekiranger than they are in Gaoranger. However, I don't think the CGI mecha's really become good until Gokaiger.

Goseiger


Goseiger also had some nostalgic elements. The color of the suits and the helmit designs were similar to that of Zyuranger and the name Goseiger bears resemblence to Gosei Sentai Dairanger. The most glaring nostalgic resemblence is to Magiranger, with the Yuumajuu Beasts using magic powers and Super Goseiger mode being and looking similar to Magi Legend. However, I think the Magiranger elements weren't well handled at all. The Yuumajuu Beasts were terrible villains and the Super Goseiger mode just looked clunky with the big heads on the chest piece.

Gokaiger

Like Gaoranger and Boukenger, Gokaiger is also an anniversary season, being Sentai's 35th. In just 12 episodes, Gokaiger has dug deeper than Gaoranger and Boukenger combined. The ranger color schemes are the same as the original Sentai, Goranger. Also, there's the Legendary War, involving all past heroes, the Gokaigers transforming into past Sentai teams, and of course guest stars from past Sentais. Among the previous seasons to use nostalgia, Gokaiger has IMO handled it the best. The Gokaigers use the previous Sentai powers for better match-ups against the MOTW and the past hero guest stars are usually there mostly to develop the Gokaiger characters and thus don't steal the spotlight.

American Influence on Super Sentai

First, I want to say sorry for not posting in nearly two weeks. It was the end of the school year, which is also the bussiest (I had 2 research papers and 3 finals to do). Now I'll have a little more time to dedicate to this blog, as well as create some new blogs.

It is well known that Power Rangers is based on the Japanese series Super Sentai. Sean Akizuki has even posted about Power Rangers' influence on Super Sentai, as well as Chinese influence on Super Sentai. Today, I want to talk about the other American influences on Super Sentai.

English Language




The use of the English language has been incorporated into Super Sentai as well as many other Japanese programing (anime, jdoramas, exc.). Conversational english is rarely used, however, english phrases and english catchphrases are quite common. English phrases have been used more in receent Sentai series than they were in earlier installments. Above are two Sentai characters, Gaku (Gaoyellow) and Hoji (Dekablue), who frequently used english phrases.

Sports Figures



Some American sports figures, or characters based off of American Sports figures have been used in Super Sentai. Above is the character Pachy Bonds, who was in Episode 19 of Abaranger (this episode is parodied in the Dino Thunder episode Lost and Found in Translation). Pachy Bonds is a baseball player who is clearly based off of former San Francisco Giants slugger, Barry Bonds. Like Barry, Pachy is African American and supposedly the "home run king," like Barry Bonds was during his career. Fortunately, unlike Barry Bonds, Pachy Bonds does not take steroids :)

American TV Shows




Above is Miss America, from the 1979 Sentai series Battle Fever J. During this time, Super Sentai's owner, TOEI, had a partnership with the American company, Marvel Comics. This allowed TOEI and Marvel Comics to bring Spiderman to Japan. The Battle Fever J series, and in particular the Miss America character, was based off of the Marvel Comics character, Captain America.




Above is Jan (Gekired). To me, Jan seems to be a character that is at least partially based on the American cartoon, George of the Jungle. Before becoming Gekired, Jan lived and grew up in the forest.

American movies
American movie influences are quite numerous in several Super Sentai episodes.

Timeranger- I can't find a picture for it, but there is one scene where the timerangers are riding bicycles in the night sky with the moon in the background. That scene resembles the Steven Spielburg movie, ET.

Dekaranger- Dekaranger has several episodes with storylines similar to American movies




Above is a picture from Episode 20, which has a similar storyline to the movie Die Hard with A Vengence, which was the third installment of the Die Hard series. In this episode, the alienizer Germa Seijin Baiz Gore planted a bomb powerful enough to blow up the earth, and he made the Dekarangers play a game by sending one player running all over town to find the next hint. If he didn't make the deadline, the bomb would explode. In Die Hard with A Vengence, a criminal who calls himself Simon threatened to set off bombs around New York City if Bruce Willis's character, John McLane didn't find the next location and hints within the time limit.




Episode 26 is similar to the Rocky Balboa series. Rocky Balboa, played by Silvester Stalone, is boxing's ultimate underdog that usually starts out getting his ass kick before winning the match. In episode 26, Hoji fights the undefeated champ, Jiva, in an illegal match. The first match Jiva beats Hoji easily, but then Hoji trains for a rematch, which Hoji, the underdog, won by knockout. Above is Hoji after he won the match.




Episode 38 is similar to the movie Speed. In Speed, a bomb is planted on a bus in Los Angeles. Once the speed of the bus reaches 50 miles per hour (roughly 80 kilometers for those who are not familiar with the English measure system), the bus cannot travel under that speed or it will explode. In Episode 38, Ban and Yaako (the piglet in the bike), ride a bicycle given to them by an alienizer (unkown at the time) when Yaako becomes car sick. After Ban reaches the speed of 25 kilometers per hour (about 16 miles per hour), a bomb on the bicycle activates. If Ban's speed goes under the 25 kmh speed, the bomb will explode.




Episodes 42 and 43 are very similar to Armageddon. In episode 42 and 43, a meteor full of planet eating browgouls is headed straight for the Earth. In a pinch, similar to the Armageddon ending, Ban sacrifices himself to stop the meteor, and sends Hoji back to the earth, to make sure Hoji doesn't sacrifice himself and to make sure he's at his sister's wedding. In the Armageddon movie, A.J. (played by Ben Affleck), was suppose to sacrifice himself to destroy an asteroid heading for earth. At the last minute, Harry (played by Bruce Willis), sends A.J. back to the ship, and thus back to earth, and sacrifices himself so A.J. could marry his daughter. The only difference is unlike Armaggedon, Ban didn't die.




Magiranger- Magiranger had a magic motif. At the time, TOEI and Super Sentai were trying to capitalize on the success of magic themed American made movies, The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter, which in turn were based off of British books.





Boukenger- Boukenger had an adventure motif, similar to the Indiana Jones series. The Boukengers looked for treasures called "precous" to keep them away from evil villans. This is also similar to Indiana Jones which tried to keep certain "treasures" away from certain agencies or governments, such as Nazi Germany.

Why Dino Thunder is not a parody of MMPR

Power Rangers Dino Thunder is often criticized by Power Ranger fans as being a poor attempt by Disney to Parody MMPR. While I personally am not a fan of the direction that Power Rangers went under Disney ownership (especially during the Bruce Kalish era), Dino Thunder is one of my favorite PR incarnations, and I view this as a misconception. Sure, the series does poke fun here and there at MMPR, but some of the similar elements are not Disney's fault. To start off, Disney and Doug Sloan (who was one of the main producers in both MMPR and PRDT) are only dealing with the hand they are given by TOEI, the company that owns Super Sentai. Some of the similarities between PRDT and MMPR include a dinosaur theme (even more specific the Red Ranger drawing powers from the Tyranosaurus, Blue Ranger drawing power rangers from the Triceratops, and the lone female ranger drawing from the Pteradactyl), an evil power ranger (in this series the white ranger), and even the Dino Thunder logo that looks similar to the original Green Ranger power coin. These similarities that I listed above are all in Dino Thunder's Super Sentai counterpart Abaranger. The white ranger in Abaranger (called Abarekiller) fought against the other Abarangers for excitement before ultimately joining with them to fight a common enemy. This is the source material that Disney was given and had to adapt to. Also, Mesogog is vastly different from Rita or Lord Zedd, and there is no equivilant of Zordon in Dino Thunder.