Granted, I do think at times the Gozma characters' thinking is odd. But at least there we see them muttering to themselves and each other about not liking their positions, and we have Giluke and Ahames competing with each other for Bazoo's favor to achieve their own ends. With Jeanne, all you have is her hatred for Asuka, but that in and of itself doesn't indicate she wants out of Evolian. Any more than Shelinda's hatred of Hayate meant she hated Balban, or Igam's hatred of Takeru meaning she had a grudge against Tube (Zeba, yes, but not the whole empire).
In fact in early episodes Jeanne claims she's an Evolian who killed and took over Mahoro's body, and Asuka decides to avenge her. Then later she claims she wants revenge on Asuka for his personal slight against her.
Giluke and Ahames don't like their position, yet, they seem to have great fun when tormenting the heroes and do destruction. Even at their last moments, despite seemingly wanting to rebel, they still did everything for Bazoo. Besides, it's not impossible that Jeanne had somewhat forgotten the real reason of her hatred at first, and realized her true motivation thanks to the mysterious girl's way of reawakening memories. Btw, if you discard that theory, it's not impossible that when she claimed she killed Mahoro and took her body, she intentionally lied to hurt Asuka; besides another theory, , in a way, Mahoro was dead, destroyed by her rape and the fact a child was born (at least apparently) from the rape, and "Jeanne" was born (i. Besides, Changeman's Shima's backstory is even more inconsistent). Besides, it's obvious that in most of the show, her main motivation is her hatred from Asuka, not Evolian's glory. Oh, and in episode 28 Jeanne mentions wanting to quit the Evolian. And frankly, when you look a her behaviour, she's more working for herself than really for the villain group. She's pretty much a loner doing things on her own.
Shelinda is a proud Balban and has always been written that way.
It's interesting you mention Igam, because it's pretty interesting that even if she was supposed to hate Zeba, she only defected not because she realized he was her family's worst enemy's offspring, but only because Zeba discarded her in the finale. I feel that it's much more problematic than Jeanne's behaviour.
Oh, last element : during most her time as Jeanne, Mahoro was using the evil armor that is able to seal the goodness in the heart, and increase thirst for destruction. No wonder she wants to destroy everything.
But the things I bring up have nothing to do with action. The "drama" the story ought to have isn't there for me, at least compared to the aforementioned shows I just finished.
Why do you think Asuka/Mahoro's storyline is weaker than most melodramatic drama written in sentai? How is it weaker than drama written in Changeman, Gingaman, Kakuranger ot other shows? Do you think that the Rie/Ryu drama in Jetman is better done (I chose that one because the Asuka/Mahoro drama is pretty much an homage to that arc)?
Besides, I think that the reason you feel there is less drama in Aba than in shows like Changeman and Gingaman is because those two shows have chosen to have an huge focus on drama, external struggles with very prominent enemies, while Aba seems to voluntary choose to use drama much more sparingly.
From my understanding, the Baranoia in Ohranger were meant to have a creepiness factor to them, that being you see a bunch of "unscary-looking" robots doing all these horrific things. Seeing Mikela and Voffa, I think that ought to have been so with Evolian; these eccentric artists are running a genocidal force worshiping an evil god. But the Evolians instead feel like toned-down Bowzock.
Probably because Mikela and Voffa are pretty inept at being anything else than monster makers, and their personal dislike of direct fighting. Contrarywise, Zelmoda, Gynaman and Richriker were more involved in the action. Besides, your compariosn with Carranger makes sense since Car and Aba have two important writers in common : Arakawa and Urasawa.
About Ohranger, that you use as an example : Ohranger started as a muuch more grim show than it ended up to be, and it has a military feel, "War of the Worlds" atmosphere that is pretty back when the show stops being wacky. Confict is really very large scale, when Aba has chosen much more individual conflict over large scale war.
You make a good point. But only two weeks ago I finished watching Carranger for the first time. That show felt more "wild and crazy" than Abaranger. Even Kakuranger felt more "crazy".
It's not that surprising. Because of the ninja theme, Kakuranger used a lot of wild action, and the monsters of the week were using the classic "Yokai" theme, and it could lad to very imaginative use of the theme for craziness. Besides, another reason is that the main characters were pretty bizarre themselves : Saizou, Seikai, Jiraya, and Sasuke at first.
Same thing for Carranger : in that show, everyone was crazy and stupid, heroes and villains alike.
Abaranger is very different : the main characters are pretty reasonable character, Ryouga's "loud Red" being balanced by his very responsible sense of being a parent, Yukito's "cool attitude" (in fact, Yukito is the craziest of the bunch, when he let himself go),, and while Ranru is hot blooded, she's still mostly reasonable. Likewise, the most important villains( Jeanne, Lije, Abarekiller) aren't as wacky as Junior or the Bowzock. The most over the top element of the show are the bizarre monster and some bizarre gags, but they're more secondary elements than main elements of the show. Most of Abaranger's comedy uses the concept of "straight characters" dealing with craziness surrounding them. So, of course, it feels less crazy than shows where everyone is crazy.