Gosei Sentai Dai Ranger (17-20)
By JC

What is it About?

The Dairanger are five strong, and holding their own against the dark forces of the Gorma Tribe. It would seem that the Dairangers were our best, last, and only hope agaist the Gorma and their new jewlery themed Three Hell Officials. But as Yoda might say, "No.... there is another."

He is the Kiba Ranger! The most powerful Dairanger of them all is a.... 10 year old boobie grabbing, panty peaking boy!?!?!!?

Skateboarding pervert supreme, Kou joins the fight against the Gorma Tribe! Will he be enough to turn the tide? Sure, if he can find enough time in his busy schedule of grabbing the Pink Phoenix Ranger's chest and using his powers to look up girls' skirts. Poor kid, being a super hero's hard work. ^_-

My Humble Opinion

I wasn't too hot on the idea of a kid Ranger in Power Rangers Turbo, and I can't say I dig too much on it here. Sure, it's every lil' kids hot and steamy dream to become a superhero, hang with the big kids, and be treated as an equal. And in that aspect this series of episodes brought to us by the hard working folks at Heshin Videos does it with respectable style. They don't make him wise beyond his age or immediately accepted as an equal among the other Rangers. In fact, I'd have to say they were surprisingly cruel to him at first, particularly a prank to get rid of him involving a fake call from his missing mother. I won't spoil it, but damn if my jaw didn't drop that these heroes among heroes would impersonate someone's possibly dead mother just to get rid of someone.

There's a little more, child/parent dynamics going on with the Gorma as well, involving creepy kid commander Akomaru and his understandable hatred for his cool studded leather wearing father, Shadam. This creates kind of a level battle field for Kou, so that we don't see him battling and matching spirits with men and women three times his age, but against another boy his same age.

The action is everything you expect from sentai and that as usual is a step above excellence. Comes fast, multi-camera angled, and creatively. Elbow drops, flying kicks and swift kinetic use of varied weapons. Only draw back I'd say was that not enough of it was unmorphed. That's just a personal preference. I like to see my hero's faces a little bit while they pull off their maneuvers. These Dairangers fight hard and like all Japan Heroes, they play for keeps. So don't get too attached to the Three Hell Officials.

Even the single big robo Vs monster battle is to be commended. Usually I'm pretty disappointed when they bust out the big bots, but the brief robot battle that explodes in the final episode was short and displayed some pretty impressive sword work on behalf of the DaiRen Oh. How's the guy in that costume move that fast?!

Last and definitely worth mentioning is that the Kiba Ranger's special attack... let's just say it needs to be seen to be believed or even marginally understood.

Final Word

If you're at all curious about Dairanger, now you finally have a chance to get it subtitled! Sixth Ranger Saga's are always interesting, but as I've seen them, this wasn't the greatest. That honor goes to Zyuranger's Dragon Ranger. Still, it had a nice blend of light hearted humor and pull no punch action. It'd make a good addition to any Subbed Sentai collection.

<< Keith "JC" Hayward >>