Gosei Sentai Dai Ranger
By Dan Kunimoto

Overview

What truly attracts us to this phenomena we call "Sentai"? One must conclude that the martial arts aspect to it affects our interests greatly and is at the fulcrum of Sentai action. It is the result of its intriguing intensity and danger that attracts us and no other Sentai emphasizes this aspect in the 90's than Gosei Sentai Dairanger.

Review

Dairanger gives us a heavy main plot that digs deep into the roots of history, the substance in the intricate subplots, and great martial arts displays. The story bases itself on a traditional conflict of two ancient Chinese tribes that fought about 6,000 years ago, the Daimazoku and the Gohmazoku, and has arisen once again in our time. The Gohma took the offensive and attacked that Dai while trying to protect themselves. Their "kiryoku" power concentrated itself into "ki"-transmitting beasts that helped protect them against the Gohma. These beasts are held in suspended animation while time passes. Doushi Kaku, seemingly having some relation to the Dai tribe, selects five "senshi" (fighters) with a sense of martial arts to help him stop the Gohma in our time. These fighters become the Dairanger. Their goal is to stop and rid the world of these destructive beings but as the story goes on, they realize that a balance of power is maintained by the Gohma coexisting with the Dai. Throughout the story, each character faces multiple struggles exposing each of their identities more clearly as the series goes on.

Ryou makes something of the lead role as Ryuuranger. He acts as the very determined and confident fighter of the groups, his techniques involve fire. Daigo is the extremely sensitive character that is Shishiranger. Overwhelmingly spiritual, he is a never-give-up fighter uses emotion to his advantage in combat, he uses the techniques of illusion. Tenmaranger's identity is Shouji, the extremely tough but also caring member of the team that can be a hot head and sometimes troublesome, using gravity as his specialty. The "cool-man" or "suave-guy" of the team happens to be Kazu, also known as Kirinranger. He works as a hair stylist but is known to put aside his superficiality and be kind, as shown when he helps out an old woman with her ramen business, the techniques he uses involve time. The female fighter of the group, Rin or Hououranger is very youthful and attractive. She uses wind as her power in her techniques. The brat-like sixth-man, or maybe best stated as the sixth-boy, is Kou. With sound techniques in his arsenal, he defeated his opponents as Kibaranger, along with his friend Byakoshinken (True White Tiger Sword). Throughout the story, he searches for his long lost mother that he loves dearly. The three that are blood related to the Dai are Ryou, Rin, and Kou.

This series is a high rated, emotion packed, action filled Sentai because of its finely woven subplots that are well balanced between characters, letting all become involved. By many, its considered the best of the 90's especially since its action never lets up and the plot advances so rapidly, and because of the quality of each of the subplots.

Conclusion

After watching every episode, I enjoyed watching Dairanger very much and many of the underlying themes made so much sense. Not heavy on humor but the tensions are high in the story, as personalities clash and troubles surmount, the heroes struggle to fight for the sake of justice and peace. It's this that's the most attractive, the punches being thrown amongst teammates and the constant problems that they face due to the Gohma pushing the plot along so fast. The martial arts are a sight to see, though. The fighters fight in all different styles all showing off their respective powerful moves. If one were to watch only one Sentai series, this would rank high in the contention. It's that good. What happens can't always be predicted or fixed. The character development is the greatest I've seen it at throughout my years with the Sentai series in Dairanger. With this series, you don't have that feeling that, "even though this was a good episode, it doesn't change a thing in the great aspect of things" because each episode does something to the plot. If you like watching fighting filled shows and want to watch a prominent Sentai, you've got your choice, Gosei Sentai Dairanger!

Dan Kunimoto