48 episodes later, Aqua and Zigg share their thoughts on the ending of one of the greatest epics of our time, Love Touch. Oh and I guess that silly show about dinosaurs has finished too.

Aqua’s Thoughts

I’ve been opting out of covering Kyoryuger for a while now, simply because I find it incredibly hard to put my feelings about this show into words. It is completely and utterly mad, all the way from the screaming onslaught of its premiere to its explosive finale. It is truly and proudly a kids’ show without a hint of corporate cynicism, and while the show’s initial episodes may come over as a bit too loud, too confusing and too childish in its humour for those who have outgrown their irrational dislike of girls with cooties and passionate adoration for dinosaurs and the colour red, Kyouryuger eventually settles in a brand of wackiness no child at heart can resist. With a strong plot dangling at the very bottom of its priority list — followed only by “making the Super Sentai franchise more welcoming to a young girl audience despite the copious amounts of young girl fans seen in our ending credits” — Kyoryuger’s main focus lies on strong action and endearing comedy, two promises it manages to perfectly deliver on.

In a twist that defies any established conventions in the enjoyment of fiction, the true strength of Kyoryuger lies in its filler. The plot is never offensively dull, but aside from the concept of a rotating cast of guest star Rangers, it brings very little new to the table. The last minute introduction of the “darkness of the land” and the “true melody of the Earth” causes the show to nearly overdose on vague, convenient plot witchcraft. Despite an incredibly satisfying finale, most of Kyoryuger’s story consisted of copious amounts of pomp and circumstance about good guys versus bad guys, with a lot of wacky terminology thrown in to make the mythology of the show look smarter than it actually is. With most of the character’s personal stories having sod all to do with the larger conflict at hand, red Ranger Daigo is the only cast member who is essential to the plot, and if anything, the show loves to let you know. Much too often Daigo gets to solve every problem and beat every villain on his own. It’s an absurd and pointless writing convention that completely goes against the mere concept of Super Sentai, and more often than not forces completely ridiculous excuses to sideline the rest of the cast, culminating in one of the show’s absolute low points: the reveal that Daigo’s only flaw is not having any flaws.

It’s a pity, because Kyoryuger’s cast is its biggest strength, and the main reason why its filler is often much more enjoyable than its actual storyline. Simplistic and rather flat, yet immensely quirky, likable and well-acted, the unconventionally large number of Rangers all have their strengths, from the giddy Amy to the hearty Ramirez. Even Daigo, despite all his spotlight stealing and unrelatable flawlessness, remains an incredibly endearing character, aided in part by Ryo Ryuusei’s boisterous performance. Yet the most lovable of them all has to be Utsusemimaru, the badass, old-timey samurai turned massive dork and unwitting playboy. I don’t want to criticize your taste in lovers, Daigo, but I know who I’d have picked as my Valentine. While some interesting character arcs, like Nobuharu’s relationship with his sister and niece, get wrapped up rather quickly and others get abandoned entirely, the focus episodes more often than not hit all the right spots. Yet even Amy posing as renowned manga artist or Nobuharu accidentally getting engaged to the villainous Candellira cannot live up to the absolute madness that ensues when Kyoryuger sheds any pretense of gravity. Basketball matches against henchmen, crazy monsters based on strict teachers or yakuza movie parodies, Kyoryuger remains unpredictable and hilarious until its very last breath.

While the overall design aesthetic ranges from laughably terrible (the Armed On weapons and the robots) to madly amazing (pretty much all the monsters), Kyouryuger is a very nice show to look at and listen to, with bright colours, samba rhythms and intense fight choreography that gives each Ranger his or her specific style of butt-kicking. Power Rangers veteran and the director who made even Movie Wars Core worth watching, the infamous Koichi Sakamoto, makes his debut as Super Sentai director and it shows, also in ways that don’t involve the camera’s love for Ayuri Konno’s legs. Sakamoto’s trademark kinetic style lends itself well to Kyoryuger’s hyperactive brand of bombastic comedy action, making him the right man for the job. Alongside Kamen Rider W scribe Riku Sanjou, he has created a beautiful package of a show, and one that manages to pull something off few other great toku shows can: for better or worse, it doesn’t leave you longing to see these characters again. Rather than to leave you begging for more, Kyoryuger managed to end on the note that it can’t get much better than this. An optimist sentiment to end a thoroughly optimistic show on, and when the dinosaurs go back to sleep and the samba rhythm dies out, a new train stands waiting to leave the station.

Zigg’s Thoughts

The question that every Super Sentai series has to answer is how will it differentiate itself? For every year that goes by it becomes harder and harder to give each series its own individual voice, its own heart and soul. The real mark of success is how well you can bust out of the very heavy restrictions of the format and make something unique and memorable. By those standards, Kyoryuger is an outstanding success. And by the much more important aspect of how much fun it is to watch, it’s an outstanding success too.

The key to what makes Kyoryuger so enjoyable is the fact it so enthusiastically embraces the inherent insanity that comes with putting a bunch of grown adults in spandex. Instead of trying to disguise the silliness, it rolls with it. It’s bright, colourful chaos for kids, but where you’d expect a sly wink to the adults, there’s just even more silliness. The fact that the show is utterly devoted to its gimmick is what makes it work – there’s no real attempt to explain away what’s going on, which ironically just gets you more into it. It helps a lot that it’s backed up by all the traditional strengths of the franchise – great costume and monster design, killer fight choreography and an explosion packed, day-glo sheen which really sells the living pop-art feel that the series thrives on. Director Koichi Sakamoto is the perfect match for the manic energy of the story, with his emphasis on big pyrotechnics and cheesy slow motion. His direction is wild enough to give some spice to the funny moments, but whip-crack sharp when it comes to action, a great combination.

If Kyoryuger has a weakness, it’s probably in the team themselves, a shame since a solid group are the heart and soul of any series. Of the core six, Utchy is definitely the standout, given ridiculously dorky charm by Atsushi Maruyama’s wonderful performance. He’s inherently very likable, but he’d have been a good deal stronger with some other notable personalities to clash with. As Aqua has already noted, Daigo dominates this group to a degree which diminishes the others, which is unfortunate. He never crosses the line into being annoying or dislikable, but so teflon is he it’s difficult to fell particularly attached to him. The same is true of of Ian and Souji, who slot neatly into cliched roles and perform their tasks with aplomb, but never really elevate themselves above merely members of the team who have to be there. It’s particularly galling for Ian since as the team’s nominal #2 it hits him especially hard, and I’d argue he’s the least developed of all the heroes, a sad state of affairs for a franchise that has boasted some memorably sparky battles between subordinates and red rangers. Nossan stands out well thanks to Yamato Kinjo’s keen comic sense and and a good hook (his older age and family connections) and Amy gets some decent subplots but can’t quite get the character over. And while the bonus rangers are about way more than I expected, it’s still not quite enough to shake the perception of them as part timers. I’d have enjoyed more of Robert Baldwin’s earnest awkwardness as Ramirez, and not making Yayoi a full time team member seems a sad case of budgetary concerns actively impacting the story. It’s a pity we don’t get more Torin either, as he’s a cool mentor, but is pretty roundly underused.

The tradeoff for a slightly blah team is that we get terrific villains, and they arguably steal every scene they’re in. Granted, Chaos and especially Deboss are not really very scary as the ‘serious’ big bads, but that’s more than made up for by the wonderful storm of craziness that everyone else gets swept up in. The comedy duo of Candelia and Luckiero are standouts, and it was great to see an actual long term plot with payoff and everything as Dogold battled Endolf in what was probably the show’s most compelling ongoing story. Even Aigaron, very much an odd man out at the beginning gets his moment in the sun in one of the rare moments the show successfully curbs its silliness and embraces drama. All the voice actors deserve immense credit, but special mention for Haruka Tomatsu for putting in the live action work too and perfectly matching her suit actor’s freaky body language.

In the end though, what makes Kyoryuger great sort of defies analysis. It’s all in the spirit of the show, its undeniable joie de vivre, its daffy willingness to turn everyone and everything into a joke. It’s relatively easy to poke holes in it from a critical perspective, but doing so is being such a party pooper it feels churlish. When all is said and done, I’ll remember Kyoryuger as terrifically pulpy, fun for all the family entertainment. It wasn’t always worthy of being taken seriously, but then it never took itself seriously either. Instead, it concentrated on being daftly cool, hilarious and just damn good fun. Now that’s brave!

Random Observations

• Time and availability permitting, we will try and cover all of the follow-up material, such as the 100 Years After DVD movie and the yet to be subbed Kyoryuger vs. Go-Busters movie.
• There will be at least a first look at Ressha Sentai ToQger, so keep an eye on the site at the beginning of next week.
• Thank you everyone for coming along on this journey and reading this column. Hopefully we’ll meet again at a train station somewhere soon. Until then, keep smiling!