We kung-fu now!
A mysterious being is grabbing kids and the one who witnessed it is an ordinary delivery boy of some restaurant named Ryou. For some reason, he is saved by a dragon when he was attacked by this mysterious being. Who is this mysterious being and why did the dragon saved him?
The first episode of Dairanger reminded me the first episode of Zyuranger; both started slow and end up strong. In the case of this episode, it started with some kid playing a yo-yo before then pan it out to Ryou who is about to dispose the trash. To add up the mystery, a man wearing dark glasses is following Ryou. The first thing that came to my mind is that this guy is seriously suspicious, why he is following Ryou and he why needs to lurk in the shadows if his aim is to have a chat with Ryou?
This is when the episode starts to kick in, after Ryou's friend, Yumi was attacked by the mysterious tentacle monster (that's the best way to describe it), and he set his eyes on Ryou! He being the powerless civilian and all ended up in the tentacle monster's clutches until he is saved by a dragon who breathes fire to get him out of the tentacles that wrapped his body. Again, that's the best way to describe it.
Ryou then wakes up in some mysterious room that has some fancy motorcycles parked for some reason and by the looks of it, these bikes are sentient beings. Ryou tries to escape only to be captured by three unknown men. To be honest, I still have no idea what is going on, why go with the mystery man approach if they can just tell it straight to Ryou's face about what the hell is going on.
We are then introduced to Master Kaku, the guy who is stalking Ryou earlier in the episode and told him about the Gorma and that they harness a power called You. The only way to counter it is with Qi and he then demonstrates what is this Qi that he is talking about. Kaku's demonstration of Qi is something that can catch someone off guard. I mean, he just attacked Ryou without telling him that he will make an attack! He also revealed that Ryou can harness Qi within him, but for some reason, I am bothered by it. From all the people, why Ryou can harness Qi out of his body? Hopefully they can give us a proper explanation about it.
We are then introduced to Shouji and Kazu who are the cool and friendly ones in the group and Daigo, who looks like he is the serious one thanks to the scowl he has in his face. We then learned that because Ryou was able to evade Kaku's Qi attacks, he is now part of the Dairangers. Now I am more bothered about it. From all the people, why Ryou... and another warrior that will arrive in Japan soon?!
We are then introduced to three Gorma heads and since they didn't do much in this episode, I will skip my first impressions about these guys in a later review. We then meet a girl who came from some foreign country and for some reason; she is attacked by the foot soldiers. I like the designs of the foot soldiers; it reminded me of those mooks from those old Hong Kong kung-fu movies. Unlike Ryou who just ran away when he was attacked by the tentacle monster, she defended herself with some attack that looks like Qi! Guess she is the final warrior that the Dairangers are waiting.
We then learned that her name is Lin and she came from China to fight Gorma in Japan. This is then followed by a great bike chase scene before the tentacle monster finally introduced himself in this episode. Much to my surprise, the tentacle monster is the kid we saw playing a yo-yo earlier in the episode! Seriously, what's with Toei and their love for creepy kids?! We also learned that his name is Baron String, well those strings look more like tentacles so what's the heck! Because of Baron String's string attack, our heroes are wrapped on his strings; this is when Ryou remembered what Kaku told him about harnessing his spirit to channel Qi out of his body.
The first team transformation of the Dairangers is really cool, aside that their power as Dairangers are the ones that freed them from Baron String's strings, the way they did the transformation call with each member saying a syllable before they transform simultaneously is one cool sight to see. The Dairangers suits look fantastic and it fits well with the kung-fu theme of the series. In addition, their individual role call is probably, one of the best I have seen in the series. The kung-fu movements made them look like legitimate masters of their individual fight styles.
Speaking of individual fight styles, this is when the first episode really stands out, the fight scenes. If there is one thing that I can complain in Maskman, the first show that introduced Qi in the Super Sentai franchise and martial arts is that there are some instances that the suit fights are a bit sloppy even though they are masters of a certain martial arts style. In the case of Dairanger, the fights draw me in, it has the same effect of watching those Hong Kong kung-fu movies and I like it.
The only thing that disappoints me with the fights is not the fight scene itself but the heroes who are using the fight styles. Shishi Ranger's use of the rod felt like he is not that serious guy we saw earlier in this episode because he hit the foot soldier's nuts with his rod! Kirin Ranger's drunken fist style felt like it didn't match with the cool guy we saw earlier in the episode and it felt like the guy with the pompadour is the one who utilize this style. I know the thing with the Kirin is a pun on a famous brand of beer in Japan with the same name so it makes sense if Kirin Ranger will utilize a drunken fist style. Thinking about it, Kazu is wearing a suit, so that makes him a salary man who goes out on drinks every night then.
Ryuu Ranger utilizing the Dragon Fist Style felt like he is a bit out of character but I guess he was just surprised back then. Based on his moves, it seems that just like Lin, he also knows how to fight before he became a Dairanger. His duel with Baron String is really amazing even though they did some distant shots even if the scene looked like it will look good if the scene is shot closer. Once again, my number 1 problem from Zyuranger makes a comeback in Dairanger.
As expected, it is Ryuu Ranger who finished Baron String in this episode thanks to his technique called "Heavenly Fire Star: Blazing Lightning Destruction", which basically says what is this move. We have lightning effects then Ryuu Ranger's swords will release a strong torrent of flame that defeated Baron String, which caused the release of the kids out of his body. With his remaining energy, he used the Enlargement Bomb to what else, enlarge himself!
This is when Master Kaku meditates to call forth RyuuseiOh, the dragon that saved Ryou earlier in the episode and is obviously, Ryou's respective Mythical Beast because "ryuu" means "dragon" in English. RyuuseiOh's second appearance in this episode is really fantastic, the way the puppeteers of the dragon animated its segmented joints is fantastic that I wish I will see more of these effects in modern Sentai shows instead of relying too much on CGI. What made his appearance cooler is that Ryuu Ranger just stands on RyuuseiOh's head when he charges onto Baron String! Can the Dairangers defeat the enlarged Baron String?
