Kyoryu Sentai
Zyuranger (Dinosaur Squadron Zyuranger)
Year: 1992
Number of Episodes: 50, approximately 20 minutes each
Subtitles viewed: Shout! Factory official DVD release.
You can watch the whole series for free at the Shout! Factory website.
Subtitle quality: Excellent
There’s no better place to start one’s Super Sentai journey
than with the series that introduced millions of Americans to the “spandex team
vs. rubber monster” genre. In case you’re some kind of caveperson, emerging
from your cryogenic sleep and stumbling upon this blog in your first moments of
reanimated consciousness, you probably know that footage from the Japanese
Super Sentai series is recycled to make the Power Ranger franchise. Though Kyoryu
Senti Zyuranger was the 16th Super Sentai, it was the first to be
adapted for English speakers, splicing scenes of American actors with Japanese
fighting footage.
The result was the legendary Mighty Morphin’ Power
Rangers. MMPR was a megahit when it debuted in 1993, and even decades later,
it’s still ingrained in the American cultural consciousness. The comparison
between it and Zyuranger is unavoidable, but I’m going to do my best to review
Zyuranger as its own show before getting into which series had the best villains,
who handled the Green Ranger better, and which cast I’d rather do Jell-o shots
with. (Spoiler: It’s both, at least for the shots.)
By the way, Zyu is pronounced “zew,” almost like the word
Jew, but with a Z instead. Say it out loud. Go ahead, aim for the Z.
So without further padding, it’s, uh, Zyuranger time!
Synopsis (No
spoilers)
Millions of years ago, when dinosaurs roamed the Earth
with Palm Piolets and 28.8 dialup modems, five human tribes flourished with aid
of the mystical Guardian Beasts. Everything was cool until Queen Bandora lost
her son, Kai, and blamed the dinosaurs for the tragedy. After selling her soul
to The Great Satan, Queen Bandora was imbued with dark, magical powers and
declared war on the dinos. In the end, the five tribes were virtually destroyed
and the era of the dinosaur came to an end.
With no other options, the Guardian Beasts sealed Witch
Bandora away. But after much more than 10,000 years, Bandora is accidently set
free, and decides that it’s time to conquer Earth. Sage Barza, Bandora’s white
mage counterpart, wastes no time in reviving the five legendary warriors – one
from each of the ancient tribes. They become Earth’s only defense, the
Zyurangers!
Evaluation (Spoilers)
I don’t know what I was expecting going into Zyuranger, but
I’m pretty sure it wasn’t wizard janitors, gun-wielding gnomes, and ancient
warriors who, despite hanging around in the current time, hardly ever wear
anything beyond their bajillion-year-old robes. On some levels, the marriage of
fantasy and modern day is charming: one minute we’re in 1992 Japan and the
next, we’re on some ancient island, or in the mystical woods or something. But there’s
too much focus on fantasy elements for the show’s own good, like the long-running
and terribly boring dinosaur egg subplot. Fantasy themes are a double-edged sword
that simultaneously provide Zyuranger with its identity while dragging it down
like an anchor.
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| Barza, in his day job as a janitor. Can you hear him now? |
Speaking of, good thing there’s all those children lying
around, because Bandora really loves plotting their murders all the time. The
implication is that losing her son 170 million years ago made her hate kids
somehow, but it’s not explained very well. Call me crazy, but want my villains
to have a motivation beyond “kids suck.”
You’d think a child-murdering psychopath like Bandora
would be cold and heartless, but in between attacking kids and tormenting Burai
with green (potentially scented) candles, she sometimes hosts impromptu dance parties.
That’s right, Bandora and friends drop what they’re doing and just start
singing and dancing. There’s a difference between comic relief and tonal
suicide, and Zyuranger just gleefully leaps across that line at the oddest times.
As it turns out, the Guardian Beasts are the five pieces
that comprise the Zyurangers’ mech, Daizyujin. Unlike other Sentai/Power Ranger
shows, they’re not robots, but sentient gods. They can communicate with the
Zyurangers, giving them advice and taking on a secondary mentor role when Barza’s
not around.
The idea of sentient mechs is kind of cool, but it feels
a little out of place. If Daizyujin can act on its own, why do we even need the
rangers to pilot it? And why are the Guardian Beast such dicks sometimes? For
example, Geki (red) didn’t want to fight Burai (green) in one episode, because Burai
is his long-lost brother. Daizyujin was watching the battle, and instead of
stomping Burai into a fine green powder, it shot Geki with lasers in an attempt
to goad him into fighting his sibling. See? Total dickery.
The final episodes are a bit of a letdown. Without the
threat of Buari’s death hanging over the viewer’s heads anymore, the series’
ho-hum conclusion goes down exactly as you would expect. The rangers beat bad
guys, the stupid dino eggs hatch, and… Grifforzer
(Goldar) and Lamy (Scorpina) have a baby? Ok, so it’s not all bad. And hey, the
villains don’t get killed at the end, instead being sealed away and sent back
out into space.
It’s a kid-friendly concussion for a child-centric series.
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| How is ZyuBabby formed? |
Zyuranger vs.
Power Rangers (Season 1, Mighty Morphin’)
Zyuranger is better than Power Rangers, wouldn’t you
think? I mean, Power Rangers is essentially a hack job, right? Well, I’m
shocked that I’m saying this, but the first season of Mighty Morphin’ Power
Rangers is the superior show.
Yes, I’m adjusting for nostalgia. Listening to self-made
bootleg tapes of PR tunes like “We Need a Hero,” Ranger merchandise everywhere,
the mix of joy and shame for loving a show designed for kids ever-so-slightly younger than I was – I
did my best to put all that aside and look at the two series objectively. And while they share plenty of elements, Zyuranger
and Power Rangers are two very different shows.
A lot of early MMPR plots are paper-thin one-offs, but that
changed with the introduction of the Green Ranger. You ever see The Dark
Knight, the second in the Christopher Nolan Batman trilogy? The tension doesn’t
quit in that movie, keeping the audience on-edge. On a smaller scale, the same
can be said for Tommy’s the five-part origin, “Green with Evil.” The threat of
the Green Ranger is ever-looming, leaving the other five rangers constantly in
fight or flight mode, even while they’re attending to their normal lives.
Episodes pick up right where they ended, so cut out the opening and ending
credits and you wind up with a pretty badass movie.
Zyuranger takes the opposite approach. The episodes that
introduce Burai are standalone pieces where he shows up, moves his plot thread
along, and leaves again so the rangers can concentrate on other things. Though
later multipart Zyuranger episodes do a better job of keeping the tension going,
there’s almost always a clear break between parts.
 |
| You're telling me this is a flute? |
It’s weird to think of MMPR as having character
development and an overarching storyline, but as the episodes chug on, that’s
exactly what we get. Billy begins the series unable to defend himself without
morphing, but by episode 60, he’s fighting on par with the rest of the team. In
the meantime, Kimberly starts to shed her selfish valley girl attitude, and Tommy
loses and partially regains his powers, severely affecting the entire team’s
morale over an extended period of time.
We don’t really get that in Zyuranger, with character
development relegated standalone episodes. For example, we find out that black
ranger Goushi’s sister taught him how to be a great warrior before she died.
But don’t worry if you missed it, because the revelation doesn’t change his
character in any way. By the next episode, we’re already worried about
something else and Goushi has been reabsorbed into the Zyuranger team
collective. Burai’s death near the end of the series is one of the only events
that has lasting consequences, and that’s mostly because we’re down a ranger. Don’t
get me wrong: Power Rangers does the same one-off thing, but within the context
of the larger plot evolution I mentioned before.
There’s little things too. Power Rangers’ rock ‘n’ roll
soundtrack fits the action better, the everymen-turned-heroes concept is more
relatable than ancient warriors in modern times, Tommy losing his powers is a
more satisfying plot device than Buari’s weird expiration date, and so forth.
On the plus side, Zyuranger is lightyears more coherent
than MMPR’s erratic plots thanks to not having to splice up footage like Jason
Voorhees at a national Boy Scout meeting. After watching Zyuranger, it’s hard
not notice the jarring jumps into the middle of the action that MMPR makes. There’s
also the matter of the yellow ranger switching genders, from a young man (ironically)
named Boi in Zyuranger to Trini in Power Rangers. Frankly, Boi and Trini had
similar body types, so it looks OK to me. But the switch drives some people
mad, and you’re one of them, I get it.
In the end, Zyuranger just isn’t as fun as good ol’
Mighty Morphin’. Well, at least for season 1, that is. But that’s a conversation
for a different day.
Overall
As something that’s been built up as legendary since the days
of MMPR, I really wanted to like Zyuranger more than I did. But the truth is, it
would be a somewhat unremarkable Sentai entry were it not for the fact that it
begot the global powerhouse that is Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers.
Let me stress that Zyuranger isn’t a waste of time. It’s certainly
worth watching, especially if you’re a fan of Mighty Morphin’. But as the
episodes wear on, you’ll find yourself asking, “Is this it?” Much of that is
because Zyuranger had mighty big shoes to fill. But even without the
inescapable shadow of MMPR looming over it, Zyuranger is a fun but kinda forgettable
experience.
You’ll enjoy watching Zyuranger and noticing all odd ways
its footage was recycled for MMPR. It’s like meeting the Wizard of Oz. This is
the man behind the curtain, people. But there are better Sentai out there.
Speaking of…
Join me next time for Gosei Sentai Dairanger!
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| I know the guy in the middle, but who are those other weirdos? |
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