Choriki Sentai Oh Ranger
By Jeffrey Couto

The Story

In the year 1999 the Machine Emprie Baranoia Invades planet Earth. The only force that can the invasion is the UA group and their operative squad: Choriki Sentai Oh-Ranger

How Good it it?

Following on the heels of the successful Kaku Ranger show (1994-1995) Oh- Ranger sought to change the sentai mix a little bit. Gone was the mystical theme used overwhelmingly in the three preceding shows; Zyu Ranger, Dai Ranger and Kaku Ranger. It was not completely abandoned as their powers came from some 600 million year old monuments, but it was not emphasized as much during this series' run.

Despite these changes and the use of some new techniques in the filming of the action scenes Oh-Ranger felt flat for the most part. Don't get me wrong it's very well done, but there is something missing from this show. I guess that the best way to explain it is to say that there is a spark of excitement missing from the whole thing, you never feel drawn in to the story as much as in other shows.

Oh-Ranger also feels unenven as the show progresses from episode to episode with some chapters being extremely serious (example: the episode where Oh-Blue befriends a robot from the Baranoia Empire only to have to kill him when the bad guys take over his mind) and others being too silly (having the girls teach aerobic dancing to the robots to make them more flexible!). I don't have a problem with a show operating on either extreme of this curve, but I do mind when the production team can't decide what they want their show to be. Granted that they probably had to adjust the story to whatever the viewing public wanted at the time, but 5 years later its somewhat confusing.

The costumes and the robot designs for this show were also a departure from had been done previously although the costumes are not that far off from what was used in Go Ranger, with designs consiting mostly of geometric shapes such as a triangle, rectangle, star, etc. The robots also support this theme by using the same geometric shapes as part of their designs. All in all I liked the designs for Oh-Ranger Robo and Red Puncher more than for the other machines that were introduced later in the series

Should I get it?

Ummmm...maybe, but I would suggest that you check out some other shows (kaku Ranger, Dai Ranger) first. Oh Ranger might be a good rental (where available) candidate however so make sure to take a sneak preview of it before you commit to buying several episodes.

Jeffrey Couto