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With Shout Factory releasing soon official Dairanger subs, here are some thoughts about Dairanger.
In the sentai fandom, Dairanger is usually seen as one of the best sentai series of the franchise. While it's indeed a good show, I don't think it's one of the best, but it's certainly one of the most overrated one.
It's difficult not to see why the show is so appealing, and it has some good reasons to :
- Dairanger has an amazing cast, heroes, supporting characters and villains alike : Keichi Wada is awesome as the main hero, notably thanks to his action skills and good acting, as well as the other actors playing the rangers. The villain cast is full of legends, Akiko Amamatsuri as Gara, Yutaka Hirose as Jin Matoba, Rintaro Nishi as Shadam, Munemura Koda as Emperor Gorma XV, and ths supporting casr is very strong as well, with Koji Naka as Master Kaku, Masako Morishita as Kujaku, and Mikiko Miki as Kibaranger's mother. All of them are convincing in their roles.
- Dairanger has some of the best desings in the franchise, with the heroes's suits looking especially good, notably with golden motifs with their legendary beasts decorating their helmets. The mechas and main robots are impressive as well, notably Ryuseioh and Dairenoh. The villains's designs are often weird looking, but most of the desings are interesting.
- Dairanger has some awesome action, helped with its chinese theme, a main actor who is a member of the JAC, and great stunts.
- Dairanger really tried an huge world building, with the Dai vs Gorma conflict, and with a rich supporting cast which introduced different elements and rivalries in that complex war.
- Dairanger tried to give each ranger some focus, by giving each one a different arc.
However, despite those qualities, Dairanger still has some major issues :
- Paradoxically, the attempt to give each ranger its arc more often than not backfires, since in those arcs, the main characters seem more to be the specific characters of the arc, rather than the heroes who pretty much becomes supporting characters. An obvious example is the Kujaku/Gara arc, where Daigo is pretty much a supporting character, with Kujaku being the real protagonist. Because the stories often focus on the central characters of the arc, like Kujaku or Jin Matoba, the heroes end up being sidelined. Even in the main Dai-Gorma conflict, Kaku, as a former Gorma, starts stealing the focus from the heroes, since his deals with the Gorma don't really involve the heroes, notably during the DaijinRyuu arc.
- Another element, linked to the special arcs is how they feel disconnected from the rest of the show. It's especially true with the Kujaku and Jin Matoba arc, which were written respectively by Kunio Fujii and Toshiki Inoue, who didn't write anything else in the show. As such, their arcs feel pretty much standalone ones, and Sugimura doesn't succeed very well in blending them in the main narrative. Another glaring issue is seen with the "three idiots plans", a three episode arc, with a first episode with Ryou as the main character, then, for some reason, it's Shouji who becomes the one dealing with the three.
- Sometimes, the show goes a little over the top with its "tragic element" : a good example is seen with the Kou/Akomaru arc: first, with Kou killing so early Akomaru so he has to be revived once, to the mother who only discovers at the last moment that Akomaru is her son, to the fact that of course, the ritual to save Kou must happen in a cave, and with rocks crushing the mother afterwards, and Akomaru having to go in that precise cave : it's like the show wanted to get rid of those two in a practical way. Heck, in Dairanger, everyone dies, except the main six heroes.
- And of course, last but not least, the biggest, and by far, issue of the show: the complete anto-climactic ending, with the villains revealed to be just clay dolls, including Shadam, the final villain. That twist is very problematic, first, because it ruins the world building so carefully crafted : the heroes were not fighting the Gorma, but rather clay dolls ; besides, at the end, the real one who settles the conflict was DaijinRyuu, by putting the blame of the Gorma. It also makes a lot of tragic deaths feel pointless, notably Kujaku's, who sacrificed herself for a claydoll and Kaku's. Btw, about the latter, he behaved pretty much like a jerk in his final arc with his pupils, and having his friend ending being killed because he didn't choose to be honest with them. Btw, real Gara, if you were good all along, and able to destroy your evil clay alter ego, why didn't you do it sooner?
All in all, Dairanger remains a good sentai show, but with all those issues, shouldn't be seen as "one of the best ever"
Your thoughts?
In the sentai fandom, Dairanger is usually seen as one of the best sentai series of the franchise. While it's indeed a good show, I don't think it's one of the best, but it's certainly one of the most overrated one.
It's difficult not to see why the show is so appealing, and it has some good reasons to :
- Dairanger has an amazing cast, heroes, supporting characters and villains alike : Keichi Wada is awesome as the main hero, notably thanks to his action skills and good acting, as well as the other actors playing the rangers. The villain cast is full of legends, Akiko Amamatsuri as Gara, Yutaka Hirose as Jin Matoba, Rintaro Nishi as Shadam, Munemura Koda as Emperor Gorma XV, and ths supporting casr is very strong as well, with Koji Naka as Master Kaku, Masako Morishita as Kujaku, and Mikiko Miki as Kibaranger's mother. All of them are convincing in their roles.
- Dairanger has some of the best desings in the franchise, with the heroes's suits looking especially good, notably with golden motifs with their legendary beasts decorating their helmets. The mechas and main robots are impressive as well, notably Ryuseioh and Dairenoh. The villains's designs are often weird looking, but most of the desings are interesting.
- Dairanger has some awesome action, helped with its chinese theme, a main actor who is a member of the JAC, and great stunts.
- Dairanger really tried an huge world building, with the Dai vs Gorma conflict, and with a rich supporting cast which introduced different elements and rivalries in that complex war.
- Dairanger tried to give each ranger some focus, by giving each one a different arc.
However, despite those qualities, Dairanger still has some major issues :
- Paradoxically, the attempt to give each ranger its arc more often than not backfires, since in those arcs, the main characters seem more to be the specific characters of the arc, rather than the heroes who pretty much becomes supporting characters. An obvious example is the Kujaku/Gara arc, where Daigo is pretty much a supporting character, with Kujaku being the real protagonist. Because the stories often focus on the central characters of the arc, like Kujaku or Jin Matoba, the heroes end up being sidelined. Even in the main Dai-Gorma conflict, Kaku, as a former Gorma, starts stealing the focus from the heroes, since his deals with the Gorma don't really involve the heroes, notably during the DaijinRyuu arc.
- Another element, linked to the special arcs is how they feel disconnected from the rest of the show. It's especially true with the Kujaku and Jin Matoba arc, which were written respectively by Kunio Fujii and Toshiki Inoue, who didn't write anything else in the show. As such, their arcs feel pretty much standalone ones, and Sugimura doesn't succeed very well in blending them in the main narrative. Another glaring issue is seen with the "three idiots plans", a three episode arc, with a first episode with Ryou as the main character, then, for some reason, it's Shouji who becomes the one dealing with the three.
- Sometimes, the show goes a little over the top with its "tragic element" : a good example is seen with the Kou/Akomaru arc: first, with Kou killing so early Akomaru so he has to be revived once, to the mother who only discovers at the last moment that Akomaru is her son, to the fact that of course, the ritual to save Kou must happen in a cave, and with rocks crushing the mother afterwards, and Akomaru having to go in that precise cave : it's like the show wanted to get rid of those two in a practical way. Heck, in Dairanger, everyone dies, except the main six heroes.
- And of course, last but not least, the biggest, and by far, issue of the show: the complete anto-climactic ending, with the villains revealed to be just clay dolls, including Shadam, the final villain. That twist is very problematic, first, because it ruins the world building so carefully crafted : the heroes were not fighting the Gorma, but rather clay dolls ; besides, at the end, the real one who settles the conflict was DaijinRyuu, by putting the blame of the Gorma. It also makes a lot of tragic deaths feel pointless, notably Kujaku's, who sacrificed herself for a claydoll and Kaku's. Btw, about the latter, he behaved pretty much like a jerk in his final arc with his pupils, and having his friend ending being killed because he didn't choose to be honest with them. Btw, real Gara, if you were good all along, and able to destroy your evil clay alter ego, why didn't you do it sooner?
All in all, Dairanger remains a good sentai show, but with all those issues, shouldn't be seen as "one of the best ever"
Your thoughts?
