[Locke]

Dairanger 46.

The mech stuff, although still not exactly good, is always more enjoyable when integrated into the rest of the footage well. It's the little things, like the panicking crowds that adds to the believability that the mech battle is really happening in the city. Even if the dated effects betray it, but it has been like two decades.

Shiryuu was pretty cool, shame that he basically appeared, then died and served pretty much no purpose. It's a shame as well, because the whole idea of two Gorma factions, both with drastically different views on how it should be run is really interesting. But instead for the majority of the series the Gorma hierarchy and all the rest has just been pure random nonsense that was seemingly made up as they went.

Then again, a lot of this shit falls flat. A huge part of this arc is the Dairanger's feeling betrayed by their master but thanks to pretty much zero character focus all this does is make the Dairanger's look like idiots. Blindly trusting and following a crazy old man for absolutely no reason at all, then somehow having the gall to be surprised when it goes pear shaped. And then whenever someone points out the bullshit, mostly towards Ryou who is one of the worst reds of all time, he responds with aggression and violence to his friends and team members. Worst. Rangers. Ever.

Still, my favourite part was when Ryou suddenly remembered his Dad. A crucial part of his character, which hasn't been mentioned since the arc it was included in, forty episodes ago. It's almost as bad as the mysteries around the antennas which wasn't a mystery at all.