What made Zyuranger the success it was?

[SamuraiEchidna]

ZyuRanger was a hit? That would be a surprise to me.

Mind you, I am the first to support Sentai over Power Ranger ANY day; and I only saw the first 10 or 20 episodes, never finished the series. But from what I can remember, ZyuRanger was a very boring series. Despite the fantasy elements and what not, it really did not do a great job of keeping my attention.

Mighty Morphin, despite eventually turning into a jumbled up mess, had a big element of entertainment and fun that overshadowed just about any of its flaws. Mighty Morphin gained a level of popularity that makes ZyuRanger look like just another average, by-the-numbers Sentai series. ZyuRanger didn't even have a theatrical movie, like almost all Sentai have.

If Mighty Morphin's popularity made fans of ZyuRanger enjoy and defend it even more, then... Good for them?

[HIDE]Speaking of, I have reason to believe that Mighty Morphin' kept the ZyuRanger suits and lasted as long as it did because it was the first of its kind in America, just like how GoRanger lasted almost 90 episodes. Do Japanese fans speak of GoRanger with the same level of nostalgia and respect Americans have for Mighty Morphin or is it just too old a series to have fans like that?[/HIDE]

 

[Aoi Kurenai]

I don't know about you, but when I was a little kid, I always hated little kids in my toku.

Yes, I know.It's just that usually they were written out as really annoying little brats who had no manners.Very rarely were they cool.

...I still hate that little girl in Faiz for throwing her crap all over other people's laundry......She doesn't deserve Mr.J's only little Chako...

Well, that's the thing, Zyuranger often wrote its kid guest stars in a much more realistic manner. There are only a handful of characters that come off as total brats. The rest of the time, the kids in Zyuranger are often dealing with problems that a real life kid their age could probably relate to. It's not everyone's cup of tea, but I'm sure it probably connected to a large enough viewer base to keep the interest there.

ZyuRanger was a hit? That would be a surprise to me.

It kind of was. The show did better in toy sales than Jetman and its ratings were the exact same as Jetman's were. I think Zyuranger is one of those shows you need to examine a little more closely to see how it could appeal to kids in some ways, and then not so closely in mecha battles. It's night and day if you compare the Zyuranger mecha scenes to anything that came before it.

 

[Jacky392000]

Just as a heads up.. Every sentai is kids friendly.

Liveman is glaring at you.

 

[Loghorn]

IMO, between the two dinosaur themes of Zyuranger & Abaranger, I think that Abaranger was the better one.

 

[Aoi Kurenai]

Liveman is glaring at you.

That two part episode with the baby dinosaur is smiling back at you fondly. And that one where Green Rhino becomes pregnant. Oh god.

 

[KingRanger]

Liveman is glaring at you.

I say again, ALL sentai is kid friendly. Now.. Think about the place (country) sentai airs.

 

[Burkion]

That two part episode with the baby dinosaur is smiling back at you fondly.

...No. ...No.

See, that episode?

That episode is what a super young kids show episode (Kid gets baby dinosaur as a pet yay!) is mutated into through the lense of a revenge driven murder series (baby dinosaur cannot survive in modern times, must be put down like old yeller and eventually is just killed dead anyways despite a lot of trouble trying to keep it alive, no body wins except the villains who got to murder the only beloved pet of an orphan who almost killed the pet himself) it's kind of surreal.


No you're thinking of the jet powered skateboard episode.

 

[SamuraiEchidna]

IMO, between the two dinosaur themes of Zyuranger & Abaranger, I think that Abaranger was the better one.

If that's true, it's probably because AbaRanger had more of an entertainment value that kept you interested and invested, never a dull moment.

I'm not sure if it's fair to compare them. The themes and motifs of the show are similar, but different in key ways. The biggest is that while ZyuRanger is a fantasy story with magic and such, AbaRanger is more of a scifi dealing with alternate species and worlds and what not.

 

[Scissors]

I agree with some of the other posters that the Zyuranger mech was a HUGE step-up from previous shows, and is one of the reasons why I enjoyed the show.
Compare the "boxy" mecha in the pre-Zyu shows to Dragon Ceasar. You completely forgot sometimes that it was a guy inside a suit. It was so smooth and well made.

I also love how in Zyuranger the mecha was only used when it was needed, and not used because Bandai said it had to appear.
It gave us a lot more interesting ground battles, and a weapon-combo which was actually shown more than 3 times and could actually kill the monsters for good.

Not only did the show start the sixth Ranger trend. It also started the trend that would last until Gingaman, where the sixth member is a special "treat" that you get in some episodes instead of being overpowered regular members of the cast.
Some people might not like this, but if you compare to many of the regular sixth members that we have seen from Timeranger and onwards, they all seem to follow the same path of stealing the entire show for some episodes, only to become extremely weak and not do much afterwords.

In Zyuranger, Dairanger etc. the sixth members kept being cool every time you saw then, because they didn't appear too much.
Hope that makes sense....

 

[Shir]

The 6th members, or other members that arrived later in the show always felt sorta 'misplaced' to me. It has always been difficult to make them a part of the show.
I love Liveman... But Green Sai and Black Bison did not contribute to the show in any way. Actually if you count Takuji and Mari as Liveman members (They did transform in ep 1), the show would have 7 members.

But I do agree, a 6th member can be cool... but now it has become almost mandatory... People start talking about the 6th member, who what how when even before the show has even aired.
I think it's a bit too much. Maybe the formula of 5+1, 3+2 or 3+3 is getting old. They should start looking for something new.

Although it's not a sentai, but I loved what they did with Spielvan. Started off with 2 and got an additional member later on. A character that was known since ep 1, so it didn't feel weird.

Another thing that I'd like to see is a female 6th member. (Go-Onger doesn't count)


And I agree with KingRanger: ALL SHOWS ARE KID-FRIENDLY.
But what is considered to be kid-friendly changes over time.
You don't see that much blood, violence, death or little kid's butts in sentai these days.
But I don't recall so many miniskirts or sentai heroins taking a bath singing a sexually connotated song 'chu~ awa awa' back in the 70~90's.