For whatever reason I was extra-receptive to my annual Kakuranger viewing this year. Once I finished up Kakuranger, I felt to give another show a try with the same kind of detailed viewing. Up this time was Zyuranger...which I haven't seen in it's entirety in about a decade.
Since I have quite a bit to say about the show... I have decided to do THREE Top 7 lists...all in one post! So...let's get to it!
Oh, and I think *SPOILERS* are stupid. This show is 21 years old...dammit...that's a spoiler alert, isn't it?
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Top 7 Problems with Zyuranger!
NEUTRAL: Bandora
She always had these airtight plans, which was cool. She definitely had her shit together way more than the badasses in say...Golgom from Kamen Rider BLACK, but she was just not my type of villain. All she really did was set traps. They always worked and they always lead to...*skip down to #2 on this list*
This isn't to say I didn't like her the entire show, but I just grew weary of her ways. Her powers were seemingly infinite and her plans didn't seem to get much bigger or smaller over the course of the series. They just involved new players each time.
I know she is a fan favorite, but considering that this is the neutral on my list of dislikes...I think it really means I didn't think of her one way or the other.
I'll tell you what, though...I *really* hate that damn song of hers. I need to write a song of my own about how much I hate her song.
07. Kids of the week
Zyuranger and Kakuranger are, correct me if I'm wrong, the two biggest kid-centric shows of 90s Sentai. Oddly I think that Zyuranger pulled it off better. They gave the kids some really neat roles about half of the time. The rest...were just sadsacks whose parent/parents died. Ehhh. Those were the ones that I rolled my eyes at.
06. The Budget
This show was done with very little money and it shows. I give them credit for putting this show together as well as they could, but it just screams of cheapness. Obviously the cash started flowing again for Dairanger and Kakuranger...
05. Fading Energy
Even when the stories were getting more dramatic and heavier, the overall energy of the show fizzled out pretty quickly. The 2-parter with Dora Sphinx was way more interesting than pretty much any episode in the 40s.
04. Dan
Useless. Even in his focus episodes.
03. Kai
Kai always left a lasting impression on me. I dreaded nearing the final episodes...
For the unintiated: Kai is Bandora's son. He previously died after being a shithead and falling off a cliff but returns to everyone's surprise donning possibly the worst costume in the entirety of 90s Sentai (YES, this includes Dorafranken......ugh). From there he just plays the role of angry kid until Kyukyoku Daizyujin sent him crying to Mama.
Really? He is what ultimately ended this show? Alright...
02. Every...EVERY little thing is a trial of might/worthiness
I understand the Densetsu no Buki being a trial since that was early in the show and it made sense. From there it felt like there was a new seemingly impossible trial for them to overcome on a weekly basis. It was just getting rediculous for things like the Dino Crystals (which made NO sense to begin with since they were made from their Medals...which they already had...) and Thunderslingers (Geki and Burai had to navigate a mountain while under attack BY THEIR OWN MECHA to get a set of pointless--but neat looking--weapons that were almost immediately forgotten. OH, and Burai didn't even get one. WHOMP WHOMP WHAAAA).
Also...Bandora putting Burai through a trial to get the Hellfriede was just beyond stupid. What the hell... I guess that's how it goes on both sides of this fight. Even though the only real hardship Bandora ever had prior to the finale was her having trouble reciting a spell one time. Bah...
01. Plotholes
I don't really want to get too deeply into this one--it should really get a Top 7 list of it's own. The plotholes in this series is actually what Bandora used to swallow King Brachion into the Earth at the end of the series...
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Top 7 WINS with Zyuranger!
NEUTRAL: The Ending
Technically they lied to the old woman when they said they were going to celebrate her birthday with her every year...
Anyway, yeah. The ending is low on this list because, like Bandora, I'm pretty neutral with it. If you watch Zyuranger, Dairanger, or Kakuranger you'll get basically the same ending with some minor variations.
Dairanger did it best, though. I always roll a manly tear during that shot where they slowly part ways, which is basically the only difference between the three endings. It's perfect...
07. Kids of the week
The good ones. Some lucky kids got some dream roles. Especially that little bastard that got to fight Daizyujin. That was awesome. Hahaa.
06. Weapons
I can't think of a single weapon in this show that I don't like. Both forms of the Densetsu no Buki were great...even Hellfriede was awesome.
05. Mecha
There are few mecha in this series, which is good. They are all great mecha, which is good. Even though there were very few mecha in this series, the fights seemed pretty fresh. Sometimes they would just give the mecha fights a break and use the Howling Cannon or Thunder Slingers...even later on in the series.
04. Suits
I like the suits in this show. Due to this, I have pretty much commited to buy whatever Figuarts they release. Just Tiger and Tricera left...
03. Music
The background music in this show was done by the great Akihiko Yoshida. Zyuranger features a mixture of new score as well as the odd piece of music from Fiveman and Turboranger, which were also scored by Yoshida.
The music fits the show wonderfully and has a somewhat classical style that would fit in during the 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s on some pieces. Kind of surprising since Yoshida was a young composer at 32 when this show came out. Sadly he didn't seem to have much of a career as a composer outside of those three series.
02. Goushi
Goushi was the polar opposite of Dan. Bandora even pointed out that he was the only thing keeping Zyuranger together.
Every time Geki has a thought or notices something, does he turn and go "...Mei!"? NO! He turns to Goushi. Goushi is the coolest.
01. Letting Burai Die (and keeping him dead)
If you go back to my list of dislikes, take a look at #2 again. Yeah, the trials of worthiness. Ugh.Well, there was a last minute trial to save Burai (ofcourse). Goushi and Dan failed to make it in time, but were given the water anyway to save the child that Burai saw in his dream. As it turns out, Burai wouldn't have been saved by the water anyway so it was a losing fight to begin with.
At the cost of losing Burai, it showed that there were actually some challenges that were too big for even Zyuranger to overcome. Granted, this was definitely a tall order...preventing imminent death.
Sure Burai's image came through the Zyusouken to inform them that the Shogozyu were still alive...but...actually, yeah they shouldn't have done that.
Regardless, Dragonranger was not there to help them fight off Kai and twitchy-face at the end. I'm really glad they kept him dead.
Burai is up there with every rockstar who died in their prime...including Gasha Dokuro...
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Top 7 Zyuranger Episodes
It's a good debut episode, but not a GREAT debut episode. Geki's first appearance is pretty awesome.
07. Episodes 17-22 The Burai arc
Chances are you have atleast seen these episodes.
06. Episode 05 Kowai nazo nazo! & Episode 06 Tate! Daizyujin!
Two-parter. I liked the twisted mood of the first part and finally getting Daizyujin in the second. I was always a bit confused on how the Zyuranger were able to answer any riddles at all considering they had barely come out of their suspended animation at this point.
05. Episode 35 Ninja Senshi Boi
I didn't mention this on any of my other lists, but watching Zyuranger after Kakuranger...you can definitely see the seeds of Kakuranger throughout the series. Things like finding out Doramonster information from the Dino Denki (...which they pretty much abandoned...damn you, plotholes!) and the ninja theme of this particular episode seemed to carry over into Kakuranger.
Just watch it and you'll agree that this is proto-Kakuranger.
Oh, and it was pretty cool to see the kid of the week have a sword fight with Grifforzer. Heh.
04. Episode 38 Mei-hime shichihenge
I'm pretty sure Mei got the most focus episodes outside of Burai (let's face it...every episode with Burai was a Burai focus episode). This is easily the best of them.
03. Episode 15 Yabure! Ankoku cho ken & Episode 44 Onna kenshi! Nippon ichi! (TIE)
I couldn't decided which of these episodes I liked better, so I included both.
Episode 15 involves Doraknight. Bandora recognizes that Goushi is the key player that keeps the Zyuranger together and has a special sword created to specifically take out Goushi.
Episode 44 involved Dorachimera. Dorachimera is kidnapping and utilizing Japan's top stars in various fields. In addition to stealing skills, he is stealing all of the children's idols. When he gets to Sayaka Yamazaki, Japan's top kendo artist, he gets quite a bit of resistence. Goushi arrives and the two are able to retreat. After she declines his protection, she is possessed by Chimera and faces off with Goushi in a duel. After getting very badly injured in the duel, he is able to rid her of Chimera.
02. Episode 33 Oshiete! Yukidama
This episode is...pretty standard up until the end...and this is one of the shining examples of one of the good kid-of-the week.
This is one of those pointless Dan episodes where he isn't useful at all. After failing to join together the gem on Dorareiger's head and the one from Saori's necklace, Saori (who is a bit of a coward) is forced to retrieve the dropped necklace and join the two gems herself. She runs through a series of explosions, joins the gems and literally saves the day. The other four Zyuranger are freed along with all of the other people who were kidnapped. More incredibly...Saori was the one who somehow figured out that the gems needed to be joined together.
Literally the only two things the Zyuranger did this episode were get kidnapped and finish off Dorareiger with the Rangerslingers.
01. Episode 32 Geki yo namida o kire!
I love this episode. There is a Doramonster, but who cares about that guy. Geki is distraught after finding out Burai's secret about his limited life. He is unable to focus on his job and is duped by Bandora into letting the Doramonster develop into a humanoid creature.
Goushi, who is awesome, is having none of this.
He shows up to Geki's one-on-one fight with Doranarcissus disguised in a black knight armor posing as a Doramonster. He manages to steal Geki's DynoBuckler and fight him while fending off Doranarcissus. Geki finally gets his act together and defeats Goushi by slicing his armor down the middle. He is shocked to learn that Goushi was in the suit the whole time. Goushi, who took quite an attack head-on, only passes out from Geki's finisher. Doranarcissus unloads a large explosion on the two of them and they seem to die in the large fireball.
...ofcourse not. Daizyujin rises from the ground holding Geki carrying an unconscious Goushi.
......that...was awesome...
Daizyujin rising from the ground was an incredible sight too.
Great episode...
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I'll return soon!
-CC
Three Top 7 lists in one… didn’t see that one coming. LOL
ReplyDeleteSorry it took long to response.
Just in time for Dragonranger review. I will response to your recent blog entry later.
*This is going to be long, so I’m going to divide my response in three-parts. Sorry for inconvenience.
Top 7 Problems
Neutral – Like the show itself, Bandora may not be my all-time favorite villain in Super Sentai, but she was one of the most memorable villains of its time. May not be her best tokusatsu work, but it was pretty good; too bad this was her last role as good/descent villain in sentai because Magiel (Magiranger) was... whatever. LOL
As for her song… it’s one of those “so-bad-it’s-so-good” kinds of song. It’s just stuck in my head. Maybe I might enjoy more if I’m high or something.
I’m looking forward your “song” in future.
7. Kids in this era (90’s) were really unique. IIRC, Zyuranger maybe the first sentai to use kids frequently as plot of the episodes. While some of them were hit and miss (e.g., acting), most of them were pretty good. I do admit some of the kids acting were… annoying and obnoxious. Sometime kids get too much focus on this episode, that it gets distracted to the overall episode.
Ugh. I hate when that happens.
6. I never knew that this show had very low budget. But then again, it can also explain why some of the effect looked cheap and used actual toys (I think) for individual mech scene (e.g., one with all 7 Guardian Beasts talking to Zyuranger about life and death).
5. That’s pretty common for most of the sentai series I have ever seen. It’s not so easy to make a good ending to series you enjoy. Personally, I rather watch a good series with not-so-good ending, than watching bad series from the get start.
4. I don’t about me, but Blue and Yellow Ranger in this era were hit and miss (Kazu in Dairanger, Seikai and Saizou in Kakuranger). It wasn’t until Carranger where every rangers has interesting and colorful traits. But that’s another topic.
Among the ones I listed, Dan maybe the most forgettable and weakest Blue. He was just there for sake of completing team. I guess every team needs a “filler” or two.
Oh well, I guess actor had a good guest role in Jetman*, who was far better than Dan.
*Interestingly enough, actor who played Geki also appeared in Jetman (Neo-Jetman). Interesting.
3. Kai felt like a desperate attempt to continue the story IMO. It was unnecessary addition to the show. Did we really wanted to know that Bandora had a kid and we supposed to feel sympathetic about it? Ugh. Cliché forced tear jerking moment.
Heck, because of that, Bandora doesn’t get killed at the end and sealed away (but then again, early in the series (35) it was established that Bandora is immortal so I guess that’s acceptable).
I agree with worst costume. I know this is fantasy themed sentai, but that was just too lame even for this standard.
2. At first it was nice to see it, since we never had this kind of thing in past sentai series; but it gets redundant too quickly and become ridiculous. If this was video game it’s fine, but for 30 minutes TV show, it’s just annoying.
1. No comment on this one. LOL. Next.
Top 7 Wins
ReplyDeleteNeutral – Heh, they did lied about celebrate old lady birthday every year.
Maybe they might come back in upcoming Kyoryuger vs. Go-Busters movie; if that old lady is still alive.
I do agree that ending was kind of weak. It just gives you warm and fuzzy feeling that it just doesn’t fit with sentai ending. But for being first of its kind, it’s forgivable.
It’s not the worst ending of sentai by a long shot.
7. Little kid fighting Daizujin was pretty awesome and unique. IIRC, wasn’t this the first time that ordinary civilian (especially kid) turns giant and fought with robot? It’s too bad that Toei doesn’t do that in recent show anymore.
I would have like to see more of it.
6. Weapons were badass in this show. Very well designed and detailed. Love them all.
5. It was nice to see mecha that wasn’t too blocky and clunky, unlike Jetman’s Jet Icarus. Individual mechs has nice detail. It had more fluidity and fight scene was pretty good. They were pretty solid. I liked that this was the time when mecha combination didn’t look incomplete and didn’t forced you to add more junk to form “super-ultimate-clusterschmuck” combination we have today.
4. I agree. It was a breath of fresh air for seeing something new in terms of design. While I did love Jetman, I wasn’t a huge fan of the suit where it looked cartoonish and… feminine. Blue and White looked OK. I do give them credit for trying something new, but it ultimately fell flat compared to Zyuranger. Suit design from here til Ohranger had very unique features IMO. Then it kind of went downhill from Carranger and ended up having lame design like Gingaman and GoGo V; which is really a shame since I love those shows!
Looking forward to see rest of the Figuarts review.
3. While I’m not a music guru and haven’t listened to EVERY isolated track, music is pretty solid throughout the series. I like them. Tokusatsu music in this era was so solid.
2. Early 90’s had such a memorable Black Ranger. Gai (Jetman) the cool guy (my favorite character of the series) and Jiraiya the first full American (and foreign) ranger; actor Kane Kosugi* is an American (born in California), despite he has Asian heritage.
*Interestingly enough, Kane also played Kenichi Kai (Ultraman) in Ultraman Powered, making him the only actor to play both ranger and Ultraman.
Goushi is no exception to this rule, when it comes to awesomeness. He’s the MAN!
I liked the he appeared in he appeared in last 2 episodes of Gokaiger, even though I wasn’t the fan of the series.
It’s such a shame the actor who played Goushi didn’t appear other sentai (or tokusatsu) series.
1. Burai is one of my favorite rangers of the series (beside Goushi). His death was one of the most tear-jerking moments in sentai history. This was a good way to teach audience about the death, if not the best among the whole franchise.
Top 7 Episodes
ReplyDeleteNeutral – Didn’t see that one coming. It was soooo obvious. LOL
7. No surprise for putting that in to the list; although, I would have put it higher.
6. This was a fun two-parter. Riddles alone make it a win! It has those nostalgia from 70’s sentai, which was nice.
5. That was exactly what I thought when I watched this episode: Proto-Kakuranger. It’s one of the thing I was talking about, when I mentioned that Zyuranger introduced new elements which will be incorporated to later series. It was a fun episode. It would have been nice if Zyuranger cast appear in 1 episode of Kakuranger, to play as ninja to team up with them. LOL
4. While Mei may not be my favorite character (I didn’t like her voice and acting), this was another fun episode to watch. It was fun to see her in different outfits.
3. Goushi centric episodes I see and it’s a tie! I like those 2 episodes, but if I have to choose one, I would pick episode 15. I liked the fight better here and kid was inside the cockpit of Daizujin! That alone is the win. Also, the Daizujin at the end, standing behind ranger looked pretty good.
2. It was awesome to see ordinary non-ranger girl running through the explosion. That alone made this episode so EPIC! If this was done today, it would probably done on green screen with bunch of CGI. Makes it booooring.
Kid was pretty smart, which was very nice. One of the best kid of the series.
1. Ahh yes, another Goushi episode. Bit of a turning point of the series where Geki learned about Burai’s limited life. He starts to fear about his inevitable death. I really like the fight between Geki and Goushi. It was so sad.
That pictures are awesome.
Thanks for the list.
I hope you enjoy looooong my response.
Take care and long live Zyuranger!
This is an epilogue (sort of) of response and it has nothing to do with Top 7 list, but I just want to share my personal thoughts about the series.
ReplyDeleteI’ve mentioned this in Skype, that Zyuranger may not be my all-time favorite Super Sentai series, but it is an important installment to the franchise, because of introduction new elements: fantasy/mystical.
Depending on perspective, the show can be both underrated (placed between 2 of the more successful/popular show: Jetman and Dairanger) and overrated (because of American adaptation, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers); not to mention that Daizyujin made several appearance after the show, such as Go-Busters vs. Gokaiger (as Ranger Key), and upcoming Kyoryuger vs. Go-Busters movie, where Geki (other 4 is ADR; no Burai for obvious reason) is coming back for some reason, along with few Abaranger cast.
Among the dinosaur themed sentai, this is the only one that worth watching IMO. (…well Abaranger was tolerable but OK, Kyoryuger (of KyoryuJERK; man, super sentai in recent year are full of JERK, aren’t they?) on other hand…. well if you’ve seen my comment and PM of toy review, you get the idea. LOL
It's very RARE to have similar theme to surpass the predecessor (e.g., Kakuranger (94) is better than Hurricanger (95) [Ninja], Timeranger (00) is better than Dekaranger (04) [Police].
Only theme that seems to break that is Carranger (96) which is better than another car theme, Turboranger (89). But I digress.
Thanks for the comment(s). Hahaa.
DeleteI totally agree about the over/underratedness of the show. This show's legacy is truly bizarre. Bandai Japan seems to be producing recent merchandise...but for who? I can't imagine there is an exponentially larger fanbase for Zyuranger over many other older Sentai series. The influx of Zyuranger stuff seems to be made for export almost.
I still haven't watched the end of Gokaiger...or anything past the Hurricaneger arc. I'm not sure investing time into this upcoming vs movie would be worth it. I can just got watch Kamen Rider J again if I want post-Zyuranger Geki. Hahaa.
Speaking of which... Kosugi was Ultraman Powered and Jiraiya... Mochizuki was Geki and J...and Domon was ZO and Sig in Blue SWAT. Man, the 90s were a sweet time for familiar faces across franchises.
When it comes to Turboranger...I wouldn't really say that show is car-themed, more of design-inspired. I agree otherwise, though. Hurricaneger and Dekaranger were just painful to me. How did they mess that up so bad?
I agree with the perspective I know it's similar too Goseiger it was in between two series that are considered all time bests(albeit in Gokaigers case a STUPID reason) only difference Zyuranger was actually good Goseiger I liked somethings but suffered from a stupid plot the blandest team minus Gosei Knight before every season was a Daigosentai (the one from Kyroyuger) and horrible ending
Delete