Review - Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger

Millions of years after being imprisoned on the planet Nemesis, the witch Bandora is accidentally freed by astronauts exploring the planet. With her minions in tow, she returns to Earth to wreak havoc.  To prevent Bandora from destroying the planet, the Mysterious Sage Barza awakens the Five Holy Warriors of Justice. Together with their Guardian Beasts, these legendary warriors transform into the Dinosaur Squadron Zyuranger to do battle against Bandora and her monsters.

Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger is the 16^th entry into the Super Sentai franchise and stars Yūta Mochizuki, Seiju Umon, Hideki Fujiwara, Takumi Hashimoto, Reiko Chiba, and Machiko Soga.

In many ways, Zyuranger is one of the most influential Super Sentai series. Beyond the fact that its footage became the basis for the iconic Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, it originated the Sixth Ranger trope and became the first series within the franchise to rely more heavily on fantasy rather than science fiction as part of its narrative. This provides Zyuranger with a unique storyline that has a rich mythos behind it. It begins 170 million years ago when humans and dinosaurs lived in peaceful coexistence (factually impossible, but it makes for a cute little alternative history). During this era, the witch Bandora ignited a war with the dinosaurs as revenge for the death of her son. Five tribes of humans banded together with the dinosaurs to stop her. While they successfully managed to seal her away on the planet Nemesis, it came at a cost. The dinosaurs became extinct and the five tribes were destroyed. Millions of years later, Bandora is freed and the leaders of the five tribes must be resurrected to prevent history from repeating itself.

As the follow-up to the dramatic and wildly entertaining ChōjinSentai Jetman, Zyuranger falls short in many ways in comparison. Despite having an engaging mythology behind it, Zyuranger fails to match the intrigue of its predecessor. Where Jetman delved into the interpersonal relationships of its characters and delivered layered storytelling, this series feels regressive in its decision to tell more formulaic stories. Nearly every episode follows the same premise where a child is in danger and requires aid from one (or all) of the Zyurangers. It gets rather stale and makes it somewhat of a chore to it through. However, there are some respites from this monotony. Nearly a quarter of the way into the series, a multi-episode storyarc introduces Burai and the villainous Lamy. It’s a thrilling arc that challenges the Zyurangers and injects some much-needed drama into an otherwise flat series. Burai, the older brother of TyrannoRanger Geki, transforms into the powerful DragonRanger and embarks on his quest for vengeance against his brother. This arc features a lot of great action and it also helps to shake up the status quo. A second Burai-centric arc occurs towards the end of the series, which is also well done and provides us with quite a few poignant moments.

Another area where Zyuranger fails to match Jetman is in its cast of characters. Jetman had characters that were distinctive, charismatic, and complex. Both the heroes and villains were individuals we could root for. Zyuranger disappoints on almost every level on this front. There are only a handful of characters who have some semblance of a personality and who are legitimately entertaining. Yūta Mochizuki is absolutely fantastic as the leader Geki. Maybe I’m biased since Mochizuki would later go on to play Tuxedo Mask in the Sailor Moon musicals, but I find him to be charming and he has a magnetic presence on screen. He plays Geki as someone who is capable, strong, and compassionate. Seiju Umon similarly delivers a layered performance as Goushi, otherwise known as MammothRanger. He’s quiet and reserved, but his intelligence and articulateness make him quite useful to the team. A comparable character would be Ami Mizuno, AKA Sailor Mercury, from Sailor Moon. That said, it is Machiko Soga who steals each and every scene as the villainess Bandora. She’s loud, brash, and totally zany. Bandora ends up being the true standout from the series for this very reason. She’s funny and really campy, but it works. Sadly, the rest of the cast isn’t as memorable. Reiko Chiba’s Mei is the token girl character in Zyuranger and is unfortunately vastly underutilized. She’s not a character who has a whole lot of depth and can even be a bit grating at times. Hideki Fujiwara’s Dan and Takumi Hashimoto’s Boi are basically interchangeable. Neither character appears to have any personality to speak of and both do virtually nothing throughout the series. They become casualties due to the decision to focus on the various children who play supporting roles and to the prominence of Burai during large chunks of the series. Similarly, Bandora’s minions aren’t given much in the way of motivation and are instead largely treated as generic comedic relief.

While watching Zyuranger, it’s impossible not to compare it to Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Interestingly, they have what the other needed as far as shortcomings are concerned. Zyuranger had the rich backstory and mythology that Mighty Morphin Power Rangers lacked, while Mighty Morphin Power Rangers had the distinct and relatable cast of characters that Zyuranger needed. There’s no denying that Zyuranger skews towards a younger audience and that its light tone was likely purposefully chosen to contrast its predecessor Jetman’s more mature tone. There are many episodes that are quite enjoyable and I think that the concept behind it is really creative, but ultimately formulaic storylines and a forgettable cast undermine Zyuranger.

RATING: C+