Gaoranger Series Review

Warning. Major Spoilers Ahead.




This time instead of making brief reviews, I decided to give my reviews a new look with a longer analysis. I may do the same with some of my older reviews, depending on how much time I have.

Info/Synopsis
Hyakujuu Sentai Gaoranger, (百獣戦隊ガオレンジャー, Hyakujū Sentai Gaorenjā), translated into English as 100-Beast Squadron Gaoranger, was the 25th anniversary installment of Super Sentai. The series uses a beast-themed motif and its power rangers counterpart is Power Rangers Wild Force.

One thousand years ago, a war raged between humans and the demonic Org race. With the help of the Power Animals, the ancient Gao Warriors were able to defeat the Org's leader, Hyakkimaru, and seal the Orgs.

Today, the Orgs have begun to revive, and five warriors have been chosen by the Power Animals. They must abandon their current lives and give up their names to become the new generation of Gaorangers to protect the life of earth. The current five warriors are called by their color.

My Review
Similar to Goseiger or Magiranger, Gaoranger has several different "Big Bad" villains, each of which come in after the previous one had been defeated. Thus, Gaoranger's plot can be divided up into multiple story arcs depending on who's the main villain at the time. All of which are from the same villain group (the Orgs), and two Duke Orgs, TsueTsue and Yabaiba, are present throughout the series.

The first arc begins under Highness Duke Org Shuten, and lasts 14 episodes. Shuten as a villain doesn't really do much but is pretty cool and badass thanks to the voice acting of Tetsu Inada (Doggie Krugar of Dekaranger). Shuten lasts for 14 episodes before being defeated. However, it's during these first 14 episodes that some of the series' best character development episodes occur. I particularly liked the episodes during this arc that focused on Kakeru, Gaku, and Sae. Later on Soutarou has a good focus episode involving a girl he liked at a flower shop. I should also mention that the characters are referred to their colors and rarely are called by name. This is understandable due to their mission to defeat the orgs but on the other hand it makes it difficult trying to remember their actual names.

The Shuten arc is followed with the Ura arc. The Ura arc is where there's the most action and the best plots during the series. My favorite happens to be the Rouki sub-arc. Rouki is an ancient demon who's revived by Ura and wants revenge for his defeat to the Gaorangers over 1,000 years ago. However, Rouki isn't an ordinary demon. He's able to wield his own power animals, much to the Gaorangers' surpise. Rouki also shows several complex emotions, including tending to an injured Sae and being conflicted with vague memories. Eventually Rouki is revealed to be Shirogane (born Tsukumaro Oogami), an ancient warrior who used Rouki's mask to try to use the three power animals. However, after becoming Rouki himself, he has the Gaorangers of that time period seal him away. Eventually Tsukumaro's memories are recovered, and he becomes GaoSilver. I felt that this arc was the best in the series. Furthermore, Rouki was by far the best villain in the series, being both badass and having a complex variety of emotions.

Among the Highness Duke Orgs, I think Ura was the best. He's the only one that actually had any kind of plan to defeat the Gaorangers, and took action. This included reviving Rouki and then later using Tsukumaro and Rouki's wolf mask to revive Rouki again. The Ura arc ends with a two-parter involving episodes 30 and 31. Ura kills Kai, Sae, Soutarou, and Gaku. However, they're revived by a mysterious kid and are able to help Kakeru and Tsukumaro defeat Ura. However, this is where the lack of realism creeps in. Ura was easily able to kill Kai, Sae, Soutarou, and Gaku, but spent nearly all of episode 31 fighting Kakeru and Tsukumaro but neither of them never looked like they were in danger. Ura for the rest of the episode isn't nearly as menacing and at times seems like he's uninterested in finishing the job.

Up to this point, I felt that Gaoranger was pretty solid. It was overall pretty well written, with some solid character development early on followed by a good storyline with Rouki. However, after this point, Gaoranger just kinda loses it's intensity.

Taking over for Ura is Rasetsu, whom I have to say is one of the lamest villains ever. All he/she wants to do is eat and nearly all of his plans circle around him trying to kidnap Tetomu to try to make her, his personal cook. Also, at this time I felt it would have been appropriate to give some more character development to the Gaoranger characters. Instead they spend most of the arc running around with this bratty kid named Futaro (whom happens to be Gao God in disguise). To Futaro's credit, he's the one that actually did revive the Gaorangers after initially being killed by Ura. However, this arc really loses the drama and the action that were present during the first 31 episodes.

It doesn't really get better again until Rasetsu uses TsueTsue as a body shield, leading to her death. However, TsueTsue is revived by Yabaiba a few episodes after Rasetsu is defeated. However, Yabaiba also accidentally revives the three Highness Duke Orgs as well. After all three are defeated, Ultimate Org Senki is created with the Org Heart and the remnants of the Highness Duke Orgs. Eventually Senki is defeated, while TsueTsue and Yabaiba apparently survive. Overall, I felt this was an ok ending to the series.

Overall I feel the first half of Gaoranger is pretty good while the second half is mixed. The first half brought some good character development and story arcs, but I feel that the show after the midpoint begins to become too arc driven and loses sight of character development later on.

Characters
For me, the Gaoranger cast has three characters that I like (Sae, Gaku, and Kakeru) and three that I felt were ok. Sae was pretty cool. She's a tough fighter. Although not as badass as Sakura for example, I thought she's one of the better fighters among 21st century female Sentai senshi. I liked her level headed personality as well, and her focus episode involving her father was one of the best in the show. It was kinda disappointing that they didn't do more later on in regards to her relationship with her father.

Gaku I felt was pretty similar to Domon/TimeYellow in many ways. Like Domon, Gaku is a tough, badass fighter yet has somewhat of a quirky personality. The major difference between the two is that Gaku isn't as hot blooded as Domon, but Gaku was still awesome.

Kakeru I felt was pretty interesting being a veterinarian. Which kinda makes sense because of the beast theme of the series and the fact that their mechas are actual living beings. I really enjoyed the episode where he lost his memory and went back to being a veterinarian, before gathering the guts to fight with the other Gaorangers despite not having his memory. In that episode we got to see two sides. One, that the Gaorangers really needed him, and also that the other Gaorangers saw what he meant to his own community.

Tsukumaro for me is a tough egg to crack. He gets the most character development among the Gaorangers, but at times I feel he gets a little too much focus. I like his backstory as Rouki, but after he becomes human again (and GaoSilver) he doesn't really do much and doesn't have a lot of personality.

Soutarou I felt had one of the better focus episodes with Shi-Chan. Although their relationship does go somewhere (unlike a lot of Sentai relationships), it was a little disappointing that they didn't do anything with their relationship between Shi-Chan's first and second/last appearances. Other than his relationship with Shi-Chan, there's not a lot that comes to mind about Soutarou.

Kai I felt was kinda on the bland side. He lacked character development and the writers didn't do a whole lot with his character, other than his friendship with Soutarou. He's not the worst Sentai character ever, but it felt like the writers kinda ignored him.

Tetomu is another hard egg for me to crack. Unlike her power rangers counterpart, Shayla, Tetomu does show the ability to fight back both at the beginning and end of the series. She's a more tolerable character than Shayla, and her singing is much better as well. However, like Shayla, she often falls into the same damsel in distress cliche. She also tends to be very forgetful, though I guess it's understandable when you're over 1,000 years old.

Mechas
For me the mechas are mixed. There are over 20 individual mechas in this season but for me that's not the problem. Unlike more recent seasons, the mechas don't have a bunch of cluster mecha formations of nine to a gazillion components. Instead, usually if one set of mechas are damaged (or injured) they use others as back-ups or replacements, which is pretty smart. I also liked that the mechas had animal spirits and living souls. For me the issue with the mechas is the terrible CGI. Gaoranger was the first Sentai to use CGI mecha's extensively. The problem was that it looked CGI, and really fake. It's not as bad as the CGI in MMPR the Movie, but for me it still wasn't very good.

Music
The music was also mixed. I really love the ending theme song, Healing You. It's one of the better ending themes among 21st Century Sentai's. I also liked the song sung by Tetomu to Gao Deer. However, I really hate the main theme song. It has a poor mix of a jazz-like background music, and the singer singing in a heavy metal tone. Furthermore, I felt that the singer couldn't sing at all.

My Rating
7/10- Overall, Gaoranger is an ok series. It had some good moments here and there, and a couple not so good moments.

Sentai Female Characters Who I Think are Their Series' Best Characters

Because Sentai has a male-majority audience, and far more male characters than female characters, I think sometimes the girls get overlooked. This is especially true unless the female character is hot. In fact, I think often the "girly-girl" or ditzy characters get bashed too often, like Umeko, Natsuki, and Ahim. So I decided to talk about some female characters that I feel are the best characters in their respective series. These are my biased opinions so I don't expect everyone to think the same way as I do.


Yuuri, Time Pink




I think Yuuri is the best character on Timeranger. Not just because she's the leader, or tsudere, but also her toughness and strategy intelligence. I also like her backstory with her family being killed and how it relates to her trying to capture Don Dorunero to bring justice to him.


Sae, GaoWhite




Sae is my favorite Gaoranger character. She's not really that good looking (but not ugly), but she has a delightful personality and excellent fighting skills. She's level headed and like the glue that keeps the Gaoranger team together, imo. I also loved the episode with her and her father. Interestingly, tvtropes.org describes her as a "bratty teenage daughter" but I just don't see it. It seems more like someone who didn't like her just added that to her character profile.


Jasmine, Deka Yellow



This one won't come as much of a surprise to anyone. For me, however, it's more than Jasmine's looks that I think makes her great. Her toughness, and mysterious charm. BTW, Ayumi Kinoshita is really good at playing mysterious characters, I'd recommend watching her on Uramiya Honpo to see this as well. Anyways, I also like Jasmine's funny sarcasm and her antics like nick-naming the MOTW or half-way singing the abaranger theme song on Dekaranger vs Abaranger, and of course because she's an ESPER. Not to mention she has a really touching backstory, where she was made fun of so much at one point she considered suicide before Doggie saved her.


Sakura/Bouken Pink and Natsuki/Bouken Yellow



In Boukenger I think both Sakura and Natsuki are the best characters. Sakura won't surprise anyone but Natsuki will. IMO Natsuki is highly underrated and gets bashed too much (at least on rangerboard) for being the girly girl and the ditz. However, I think her ditzy and energetic personality makes her cute and funny, especially episode 24 when she goes overkill with Ultimate DaiBouken. Besides her personality, Natsuki has one of the most interesting backstories with her being an ancient member of the extinct Lemuria civilization. Episodes 33 and 34, which covers Natsuki's background, are two of my favorite Sentai episodes ever.

However, I do like Sakura a tad bit more and think that Sakura is the better character. Like Yuuri, she's tough, intelligent, a genius with battle strategy, and a much different pink. But unlike Yuuri, Sakura can be both really badass (like episode 12) or really cute and adorable (like episode 37).

Eri/Gosei Pink, and Moune/Gosei Yellow



Like Boukenger, I think both of the Gosei girls are the best characters in their series. However, the difference is that in Boukenger, Sakura and Natsuki stick out in an already good cast. Here, Eri and Moune stick out in anotherwise bland and boring cast. For me, Eri and Moune aren't great characters but they're descent. They're the only Goseiger characters that really have any kind of personality. Eri, like Natsuki is bubbly and ditzy, but somewhat funny. Moune is also a bit on the bubbly and cheerful side as well. I will say that I hated the running gag of Hyde treating Moune like a child. It was alright the first time but afterwards it just got tiring.

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.

April Poll Results, Most Under Rated Power Rangers and Sentai Series, New Poll

Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue won the poll for most underrated Power Rangers series with 42 votes. Power Rangers Zeo was second with 35 votes. Other than these two, it wasn't much of a competition. SPD got third with 29 votes, Wild Force came in 4th with 28 votes. Operation Overdrive had the least number of votes with 21.

In a very tightly contested poll, Gaoranger won the poll for the most underrated Sentai season with 32 votes. Go-Onger narrowly missed with 31 votes, while Goseiger received 30 votes. Oranger, initially in a 4 way tie with the three I listed above, finished 4th with 25 votes. Goggle V, Hurricanger, and Abaranger tied for 5th with 22 votes. Sun Vulcan got the least number of votes with just 11.

My next polls will be favorite PR Samurai and Gokaiger character, this time voters will only be allowed one choice.

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.