[Kamen Rider Lucha]

I've now completed DAIRANGER. Another one bites the dust!

Funny coincidence that I finish it up just as its US DVD release is announced. I'll definitely spend my money on the set to show my support of...

Another freaking fantastic 90s Sentai season!

Dairanger is one of the most consistently "good" sentai series I've seen, with reliable pacing, a twisty plot, and well-developed side characters. It doesn't quite reach the same sublime highs as Jetman or Kakuranger, my reigning top-two series, but on the flip side, it never descends to those series' lows.

Still, I'm always going to prefer series with high highs, even if they contain low lows. To me, the peaks justify the valleys. While I do love Dairanger, its consistent B+ quality doesn't appeal to me as much as the series that have moments of A+ material, even if we have to suffer a few C- patches to get there. Therefore, I don't think I can rank it higher than Jetman or Kakuranger -- or even Gokaiger, by current #3. It's strange to me that a series as enjoyable as Dairanger only ranks at #4 on my list of favorites -- but I suppose that that's just a testament to how good this show can be when it's firing on all cylinders.

The only downside of Dairanger that I can think of -- and I can see this being a bigger problem for a lot of people than it was for me -- is the limited character development of our main five. In a show with a less propulsive overarching story, I'd find that more problematic than I do here. But because almost every episode progresses one of the main plots, it's easier for me to forgive the heroes' unwavering adherence to strict archetypes. Also helping matters are some very well-developed supporting characters like Kukaju, Jin, Akomaru, Gara, The Three Gorma Stooges, and Doushi Kaku. I wish more attention was given to developing the leads, but that's not to say there weren't any fully fleshed-out characters in the mix.

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Alright, now that Dairanger is in my rear view, it's time to look to the future.

The future of 199X, to be exact. That's right, I'm tackling the notoriously troubled OHRANGER next.

OHRANGER will be the first series I've watched with an outright negative consensus from fandom. I've seen the first 7 episodes, and I've gotta say...

They're pretty darn special! Ohranger's opening arc is... well, the word that springs to mind first is "hardcore." The show applies Sugimura's mad genius to a more traditional, 70s/80s-esque military-ops Sentai team, and so far the results are surprisingly dark. Seriously -- these episodes are just brutal, and that brutality is highlighted by stellar action direction and some of the franchise's best editing. The heroes come out the gate as ultra competent badasses to face the super ruthless Baranoia Empire. These villains are scumbags who are out for blood, and their goal is not world destruction, but rather the psychological and physical enslavement of all of mankind. The Baranoia -- even their mooks -- are terrifying. I mean -- in just 7 episodes, I've already seen a mind-controlled father torture his young son, a brainwashed young boy hold his brother at gun point (in what has to be the franchise's most disturbing instance of Cronenberg-ian body-horror), a big bad kill two of his own subordinates in an especially soul-crushing manner (he really hates love, y'all), and a near-Jiraiya-level-tragic backstory for the heroes' commander.

I know that things quickly change after the Sarin gas attacks -- which occurred during the writing of episodes 8 and 9 -- and that the show's tone shifts radically after that point. Even so, I can't wait to see how this troubled production plays out. If nothing else, I doubt it will be boring.