Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers was an American TV show that heavily borrowed footage from Zyuranger, and it was a little difficult separating my Zyuranger viewing experience with my Power Rangers nostalgia during action scenes. The story of Zyuranger couldn't be more different from that of Power Rangers, though. Instead of teenagers obtaining their powers by a semi-random selection, the Zyurangers are ancient warriors from 170 million years ago!
NOTES
- I usually refer to main characters by title or color because it's easier
- I will mention spoilers through episode 30, when Great Satan first appears
The Basics
Full Title: Kyouryuu Sentai Zyuranger
Air Date: February 1992 to February 1993
Series Number: 16th
Video Content: 50 episodes
170 million years before the present day, tribes of ancient humans and immortal fairies coexisted with prehistoric megafauna, with each human tribe worshipping a different great beast. An evil witch named Bandora waged war against the humans and fairies, but lost. The victors sealed Bandora in earth's moon by fairy magic. Anticipating her return, five human tribes each placed one of their warriors in a magic slumber, with some fairies on hand to revive them should Bandora return. Well, in 1992, Bandora returns and the Zyurangers are revived to stop her.
The Zyurangers
The Story
Zyuranger has more fantasy components than most Super Sentai. Individual episodes are called "quests" and the team's mecha are tribal gods. The villain, Witch Bandora, is a sorceress who summons monsters from myth and legend. The main mecha, Daizyujin (the MMPR Megazord) is a divine entity capable of speech. There are a few episodes showing the Zyurangers acclimating to modern life, but in general they adapt quickly and get to rescuing children from Bandora's schemes often. And they rescue a LOT of children; most filler episodes are rescuing a kid-of-the-week from the monster-of-the-week, and there is more filler content than usual in Zyuranger relative to other Sentai. Most filler episodes are centered around a single ranger, which is fairly normal for Sentai.
Zyuranger's story has a deliberate pace, slower than usual for 90s Sentai, which is a trait it shares with Jetman. The Zyurangers lack their unique weapons and mecha at first, having to find legendary weapons in the first four episodes and calling on their combined mecha for the first time in episode six or seven. Nowadays, every Sentai show has special weapon attacks and a summoned combination mecha in the first episode. Zyuranger's storytelling tone is also darker than most modern Sentai, with a level of child endangerment unheard of in a 2010s show - we're talking kidnapping, sacrifice, the works. Bandora LOVES tormenting children. Rescuing a new kid or group of kids every week is definitely a tokusatsu tradition of the 70s and 80s, and it's very, very present in Zyuranger. Maybe more than any other 90s Sentai.
I didn't always love the plot in Zyuranger. Too many episodes are about rescuing children from fairy tale monsters (more on those later), and I didn't always care about the characters enough to suffer through their focus episodes (more on that later, too). However, the conflict between Red and Green is excellent, and the episodes with the highest stakes are very good - many of them involve Bandora's master, Great Satan. More on both of them later (of course). By the end of Zyuranger I liked the show's story (it ends on a pretty strong note), but the individual episodes are below average for Sentai.
Geki and Burai, dueling
The Heroes
Tyranno Ranger (red): Geki, prince of the Yamato tribe, Warrior of Justice
Mammoth Ranger (black): Goushi, knight of the Sharma tribe, Warrior of Knowlege
Tricera Ranger (blue): Dan, knight of the Etoffe tribe, Warrior of Courage
Tiger Ranger (yellow): Boi, knight of the Dime tribe, Warrior of Hope
Ptera Ranger (pink): Mei, princess of the Lithia tribe, Warrior of Love
Dragon Ranger (green): Burai, knight of the Yamato tribe, Warrior of Power
The Zyurangers are technically prehistoric humans, but the only way you can tell is from their outlandish outfits and their dedication to their quest to defeat Bandora. They regularly explore modern-day Tokyo with confidence and fascination, with very little culture shock at all. That struck me as odd, but I guess I accepted it without much of a problem. Each of the Zyurangers is a knight or royalty from a different allied tribe from back in the prehistoric days, but this comes up rarely - just for specific episodes about the Red, Green, Pink, and Black rangers.
I think that the writing in Zyuranger is below-average, but that's not the fault of the actors. It's mostly a likable cast, with Red being a reliable leader, Black as his shrewd second-in-command, and the other three as contributing fighters. Blue is the cockiest of the group (which doesn't always work out for him) and Yellow is SPECTACULARLY unlucky, to the point where most of his episodes are him getting in some silly trouble by accident. Pink is a good actress playing a weak character - Pink does well in combat, but has few character traits other than "kindhearted" and "female." The various children and fairies that assist the Zyurangers aren't bad characters, but are so forgettable and replaceable that I don't remember any of their names. My favorite hero in the series was Black, who's a good version of the "serious guy" archetype and by far the smartest warrior on the team. I said aloud some version of "these jokers would be dead without Goushi" several times while watching Zyuranger.
Let's talk about the Green ranger, who has the best subplot of anyone in the show. Green is Red's biological brother. Red was adopted by their tribe's royal family as a baby when the king and queen couldn't produce a son. When Green and Red's parents attempted a coup and failed, Green's family was exiled and Green grew up hating his brother; he froze himself at the same time the Zyurangers did. Green immediately forges an alliance with Bandora once he revives a few months after the Zyurangers do - Green is a real asshole for his first few episodes. Eventually he joins the team (of course), but the circumstances of his joining and the conlusion to his story are memorable and great. It's different from the Green Ranger story in Power Rangers, but it's cool as hell and one of the defining parts of the Zyuranger plot. In general the cast of Zyuranger is good, but the show's script doesn't serve them as well as it could.
The Bandora Gang
The Villains
The primary antagonists in most of Zyuranger are Bandora and her cohorts, the "Bandora Gang." Bandora herself is a powerful witch capable of a remarkable number of spells and curses for terrorizing children. Bandora, you see, hates children, and often targets them directly in her schemes (there's even a story reason for this!). Bandora's power comes from her dark contract with a being named Great Satan, who features prominently in a few late-season episodes of Zyuranger.
Bandora's most dangerous allies are the griffin-like Grifforzar ("Goldar" in MMPR) and Grifforzar's scorpion monster wife Lammy ("Scorpina" in MMPR), both of whom are excellent fighters. The oafish goblin Topat and the fussy vampire Bookback are mostly just goofballs, but do regular hench-work for Bandora. The elderly monster Pleprechaun creates monsters and golems, the monsters-of-the-week and foot soldiers, respectively. Golems were called "Putties" in MMPR. Most of the monsters in Zyuranger are inspired by creatures from myth or folklore, from sphinxes to cockatrices to Frankenstein's Monster. It's a pretty impressive lineup of baddies.
The villains are both a strength and a weakness in Zyuranger. They have a lot of personality, and the actress playing Bandora, the legendary Machiko Soga, is delightfully expressive and hammy. The tone of the Bandora Gang's schemes ranges from extremely silly (playing an evil game of red-light-green-light with children so they're unable to stop moving) to extremely dark (trapping children in stone to be sacrifices to Great Satan) and the tone is occasionally at odds with itself. By the end of the series, only Bandora, Grifforzar, and Lammy feel like real threats (I really like those three), but the entire gang is always memorable and occasionally funny. I just wish there weren't so many episodes about tormenting children.
Dragon Caesar and Daizyujin
Mammoth Ranger (black): wields a battleax, pilots mastodon mecha
Tricera Ranger (blue): wields twin spears, pilots triceratops mecha
Tiger Ranger (yellow): wields dual daggers, pilots saber-toothed tiger mecha
Ptera Ranger (pink): wields a bow and arrow, pilots pterodactyl mecha
Dragon Ranger (green): wields a short sword, pilots bipedal dragon mecha
I enjoyed most of the action in Zyuranger. The characters have distinct skills and mannerisms in combat, and there's a fair amount of fighting out of suit as well. The actors for Red and Yellow have some stunt work experience, because they're quite acrobatic in their movements and swordplay. Pink's actress at least knows how to handstand and perform a few judo motions, because she does so in nearly every fight (haha). In general the suit action in Zyuranger is very good, even if their cannon finisher is as basic as they come.
The mecha action in Zyuranger is excellent, among the best I've seen in Super Sentai. It's almost entirely practical effects, and mecha fights are often lengthy and involved. Remarkably, Daizyujin is used like a trump card and last resort for the first half of Zyuranger - you see significant screen time of individual mecha and their pre-Daizyujin "tank formation." Later in Zyuranger, Green's Dragon Caesar mecha joins the fray with a few additional combinations that all look dope, and by the end a Brachiosaurus carrier mecha called God King Brachion joins the team for some extra firepower. Whatever. Mecha fights in Zyuranger are consistently great.
The combat in Zyuranger feels very retro compared to the 15+ mecha, CG-heavy action in Sentai of the 2000s and 2010s. There are seven mecha total, with the sixth arriving in the middle 3rd and the seventh arriving in the final 3rd of the show. Each of them has multiple attacks and combinations. Daizyujin's story role and dominance in combat is eminent, and the occasional times Daizyujin truly struggles feel like high-stakes drama. I enjoyed almost all of it. The action in Zyuranger is consistently above-average, with the mecha fights particularly good.
Dino Buckler and Zyuranger coins
The Style
The Zyuranger suits are excellent. Each ranger has a good balance of their main color with a white diamond design, with nice gold highlights on the belt buckles (more on this very soon). The helmets create distinct visor shapes that also look good without being too silly or distracting. This is definitely another case of nostalgia causing me to look fondly on an element of Zyuranger, but even in a vacuum I think the Zyuranger suits are top tier Sentai designs.
The weapons in Zyuranger also look great, and the quest to obtain them is a cool early story plot point. The morphing devices are belt buckles called Dino Bucklers, which contain coins stylized with each tribe's god. These are cool touches in both Zyurnager and MMPR, and feature prominently in the henshin sequence (which is otherwise just okay). I wouldn't mind having a set of those coins for my collection. The Zyurangers also have a set of motorbikes that barely get play outside of early episodes. Whatever. The Dino Bucklers and those coins are unique and look great.
Similar to Gingaman and Zyuohger (the other two most recent Sentai I've finished watching), the Zyurangers mostly dress in fantastical garb that look like goofy tunics from a rural town in a Japanese RPG. They don't look *bad* but they definitely don't look *normal*, and frankly the passersby in 1992 Tokyo take the Zyurangers' appearance too much in stride. The Zyurangers' base of operations is a set of empty rooms and bookshelves hidden under an apartment complex (that happens to have an ancient fairy as superintendent) and if anything they're more boring than Zordon's command center in MMPR. It's possible that a few 1990s Sentai didn't have a very high scenery budget. Zyuranger doesn't score many style points outside of the timeless suits and those dope Dino Bucklers.
Bandora, expressing her true feelings
The Final Word
Favorite Hero: Mammoth Ranger (black)
Favorite Villain: Lammy
Favorite Mecha: Dragon Caesar
Favorite Episodes: Sword of Darkness (15), Daizyujin's Last Day (20)
It wasn't easy to express my feelings on Zyuranger. The designs of the suits, monsters, and mecha are outstanding, perhaps even timeless, but that opinion may be influenced by my Power Rangers nostalgia. Plus, the superb visual designs and solid action sequences of Zyuranger are hamstrung a little by weak story and dialog. Zyuranger isn't one of the best Sentai seasons, but it has some good parts and I am ultimately glad to have finally watched the show on which Power Rangers is based.
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I've finished watching Gingaman and Zyuohger, so those will be my next two Sentai reviews. I've also finished watching seven (SEVEN) Kamen Rider shows over the past year, and may eventually review those as well. I've played a few games over the past year, but haven't reviewed any of them. Yeah, that's disappointing. I'm currently playing Tokyo Xanadu on Vita, and I'm at the last chapter. Sweet Moses I've neglected this poor blog.
"My favorite hero in the series was Black, who's a good version of the "serious guy" archetype and by far the smartest warrior on the team. I said aloud some version of "these jokers would be dead without Goushi" several times while watching Zyuranger."
ReplyDeleteI loved Goushi. It's weird to remember that he was the smart and serious one because my memories go to his empathy and his warm smile. I'd compare him favorably to X-Men's Beast where his warmth is just a strong a quality as his mind. Zack, Adam, and Goushi; I don't think there's another suit that's filled with such strong characters.
I don't remember if I ever finished Zyuranger before the links I was using died. You're right about there being too much filler, where nearly every episode not featuring Burai plot felt dull to watch. Might be my own Power Rangers nostalgia, having already seen most of these monsters and their fights stateside, but I just couldn't care about the dino eggs or child-napping plots anymore. Unless Bandora was singing.
Found this blog from your Top 20 Sentai post, and I'm watching through both Go-Busters and Beast Morphers right now. A lot of good stuff to read!