I'll see if the designs improve as I go on, but I'm finding them to be pretty bad right now.

Well if you don't really care for the designs now then you probably won't as the series goes on. But yeah looking back on the designs, made me realize that they really weren't all that good. I'd honestly prefer Tokkyugers. But then again I don't care as much for monsters so.

I'm with you there. The villain designs in Dairanger never grew on me. They're pretty uninteresting overall.

The Lipstick Songtress is the only one I can actually remember tbh, but more because the concept and the episode were so crazy.

Episode 2 was much better than 1, focusing on Tenmaranger.
Unfortunately, they forgot to focus on Tenmaranger...
He didn't grow or change. It was just a villain who made the stakes more personal. We learned he grew up in a single mother household...And that's about it.
However, it's only episode 2, so it's incredibly early. I'm not going to assume that the characters don't grow. But since they didn't tell us much about him, I think they dropped the ball.

Dairanger's action scenes are quite fun, thankfully. I enjoy seeing them using ki techniques and wielding the rods.

Don't worry about it. By the end of the show all six members of the team are fully developed, as are many of the side characters and villains.

I figured as much. I just found it kind of striking to do a focus episode on a character and then proceed to tell us nothing about the character.

Anyway, episode 3 and 4, the series's first 2 parter. It was a pretty nice set of episodes. Their minds traveled to China, they finally learned to stop complaining and work as a team, and now they also learned of the other beasts' existence, which I assume they'll receive next episode or the one afterwards.

I might disagree with some of your comments Matrix, but it is awesome to hear your thoughts on the series as you experience for the first time. I wish I could experience Dairanger all over again for the first time, especially since this time it would be subbed.

EDIT: Well, I'm all caught up with MFC's Ohranger release for the first time ever. It kind of sucks since I liked having a backlog of episodes to cram through in one sitting. Oh well. Anyway, do they think they threw in enough mecha in the span of 5 episodes?

Alrighty, just saw episodes 5 and 6. Rin got a strange vision which led to the discovery of the lost RaiRai balls and the revelation that the other 4 KiDen Beasts.

This set of episodes were pretty good. It gave nice development for Rin, who was feeling self doubt after a possible friend was kidnapped. She overcame her anxiety and doubt and proved her mettle. I particularly enjoy seeing strong female characters, especially in a franchise that basically uses their women as set dressing with annoying, bubbly personalities more often than not.

I liked the focus on Rin, unlike the earlier Tenmaranger episode that had a good chunk of everyone. It gave her a chance to grow and become an established character. Makes me interested in how her character will grow from here.

The monster here (Lipstick Songstress?) wasn't as poorly designed as the key, purse, and yo-yo monsters, thankfully. Made watching her a lot easier. She wasn't anything special, but I did like that she was strong enough to down RyuuSeiOh. Her scheme of abducting women for her demon choir thing was cool, too.

However, something that's always bugged me since I was a wee lad watching Power Rangers S2 are the Thunder Zords, or here, the KiDen beasts. I hate how uninspired they are. It's nice that they get flashy abilities to make up for how little they can do, but they're just a major disappointment, visually, compared to RyuuSeiOh. Don't get me wrong, I know exactly why they're designed the way they are, and they did the best they could, I guess, but that doesn't change how visually weak they are, SeiTenma and SeiKirin especially.

Well, 2 more episodes down. Now at episode 8, we find out the identity of Ryou's thought to be deceased father. It's pretty interesting revelation. I didn't think he'd be a straight traitor. I was thinking they'd pull what Kakuranger did and have him be a spy or something. I'm glad they played it straight.
We get a look at a former set of Dairangers as well, which is neat.

We also get our first look at DaiRenOh, who, as always, looks pretty cool. I guess it makes up for the sacrifices the individual pieces had to make to achieve it.

The monster here was pretty uninteresting, but I'm confused over Gouma's reaction to seeing Ryou's father. He betrayed the Dairangers to the Gouma, and then they attack him, calling him a traitor, even though he defected to the Gouma? I'm confused...

I just hope the plot decides to enter the show. I've noticed that, so far, it's just been fighting Gouma, but no trace of an actual overarcing plot has begun yet, as the monster of the fortnight episodes tend to be self contained. I do enjoy the character building they provide, but there actual story hasn't gotten to start yet...

Anyway, as a final aside, I like that they don't force in a mecha fight each episode. It makes their entrance all the more grand when they don't show up every episode. It also doesn't bog down an episode by wasting 2 minutes on a giant fight.

I love the battle between Dairen-O and the High Priest in that episode. But then, any time they use the orange sunset backdrop is an amazing moment.