Chouriki Sentai Ohranger: Ep2 - Assemble!! Chouriki Sentai - Summary/Review

 

Back again with the second episode of Ohranger. It can be expected that the other 4 core rangers will appear in this episode as previously, only red appeared. Click "read more" and let's see how they handle this.

Analysis

After a catchy theme song and recall, the episode begins with the machine empire attacking Tokyo. Many lasers are shot, buildings blow up, and people running in fear when Butlers Acha & Kocha at last appears with a message.

Basically, he says that since Earth did not surrender as requested, their Empire will now be using force to take over Earth. 

I should give him credit. Even with grim news for the people, he still remembers to bow and say thank you. Evil with manners.

Cutting away, we see Goro piloting a helicopter with the other 4 soon to be rangers. They are aware of the damage in Tokyo and everyone is telling Goro to take them to the air force HQ to fight back, but he has another destination, the Ohrangers base.

I love these headquarters sets.

Goro gives everyone the breakdown about how the world's powers all contributed money to build the facilities and that the Ohrangers exist solely to fight the Machine Empire Baranoia. Also, the traditional, no military weapons or science can stand up to Baranoia and the Ohrangers are the only ones who have the power to fight them off. Not counting the past bunch of Sentai Teams. Now, Colonel Miura is properly introduced.

Miura is the founder of the Ohrangers and in charge of the engineering field as well as archeology. I'm guessing he will be the one who gradually upgrades their fire power. 

As everyone walks down the buildings halls, Miura begins to give a history lesson on Pangaea. The one continent that was all of Earth's land before they split apart.

Cool history lesson, if it was fact checked. A quick Google search tells you Pangaea "assembled from earlier continental units approximately 335 million years ago, and it began to break apart about 175 million years ago". Off by just a few million years. But, I'm sure there long winded arguments to be made and I am far from an expert.

Well, turns out there is a point to this history lesson. It was believed that no humans existed during Pangaea, but there were and they had an amazing civilization called Mesopotamian. A mixture of all civilizations that split up along with the Earth that now serve as the basis for their mecha.

That was a crazy over thought out explanation for the theme of the mecha which include things like a pyramid, phoenix, and sphinx. Historically this makes no sense, and I think I honestly prefered how Power Rangers Zeo did it with no explanation other than looking cool/tough.

The story goes on to say that the humans that built this ancient society possessed a great power called Chouriki. Chouriki is the "super power of the super-civilization" that was harnessed by the ancient civilization using chambers similar to their Ohranger base where "geomagnetism, geothermal heat and other natural Earth energies" are amplified. Now, that same power has been replicated by Miura.

I will never buy the story of ancient civilization have science and technology better or even on par with modern technology. Human development and heritage does not work that way.

To summarize, the same power, Chouriki, that was used to speed up civilization development 600 million years ago is now being used to develop Ohranger technology instead of advancing modern civilization. 

Any chance they will re-purpose that Chouriki after the war?

However, the times of exposition are cut off when a phone call comes in that a giant monster is attacking Tokyo. Tokyo was being attacked this whole time remember? They probably should have tended to that first.

Kind of makes me want a pizza.

More buildings get blown up and even a school bus with little kids inside gets picked up and terrorized. Now, it is time for the Ohrangers to mobilize. In order for the other 4 to become Ohrangers like Goro, their bodies must be altered. This leads to a light show.

A commercial break cut, then back, now Tokyo is still under heavy attack when the Ohrangers arrive on their new motorcycles.

I wonder what happens to those motorcycles after a season wraps up. Do they get re-skinned for later seasons? Or, maybe they are all in storage somewhere. Show me the bikers that re-create them.

The kids in the bus and their teacher are begging for help as the Ohrangers perform their first group henshin/rollcall.

Core team complete

Now the first group ranger battle begins after some long shots of both sides posing. The Ohrangers make quick work of the grunts (Barlo Soldiers) using only martial arts, battle sticks, and their handguns. Baranoia is shocked to see their Imperial Army beaten and the king angrily orders the Ohrangers deaths. This prompts the giant to go on another rampage which causes a fire that is heading towards the bus. 

I do not miss the over reliance on kids in danger from these classic seasons.

Goro and Shouhei distract the giant while the other 3 rush to rescue the kids. Luckily, the 3 of them make it up to the bus, but Goro gets picked up by the giant. The giant then tosses Goro into the window of a building where he somehow bounces back and falls on a car.

Either that was a very strong window, or those suits make glass a little bouncy. I'll go with the latter considering the windshield of the car he landed on only cracked and didn't shatter.

The Ohrangers get the people on the bus to safety and continue to fire back against the giant, but it i appears to be a losing struggle. Things look especially bad (for more than 1 reason) when the rangers jump on the giant and start swinging their weapons at it. Some poor direction here has some of them swinging at air.

These are moments you just can't make up.

Amazingly, the giant is defeated by the combined weapon blast and the Machine Empire retreats. The Ohrangers all change back and look exhausted while sweating heavily because the henshin takes a lot of stamina. 

No mecha/zord this episode.

The episode ends with the Machine Empire vowing to create a series of perfect machines to destroy the Ohrangers and the Ohrangers vowing to defeat the Machine Empire. To Be Continued!

Final Thoughts

This episode was pretty good with the pacing and acting, but the effects were terrible and the fight scenes were average at best. I don't pick on special effects for being outdated, in fact I like them when used right, but the mid 90s can do much better than this and there was no effort to try and make it blend in. The part where Goro got picked up by the giant looked depressingly fake and it blows my mind to see Ohpink and Ohyellow literally swinging their weapons at air. 

Writing was pretty good, but not always. The huge drawn out explanation for their power supply was a bit much for me, let alone the little kids this show targets. Also, this was not addressed in either episode, why exactly were ace pilots chosen for a special mission that is mostly ground combat? 

Overall, this episode left a lot to nitpick, but the saving grace really was the pacing. It stayed focused, never got silly for too long and kept the drama/action as the main focus. The setting, while a bit much, was not drawn out too much, and the ending scene was a great way to promise more battles to come. Although, defeating the giant without their Mecha was a wasted opportunity. They really did not need a part 3 to bring them out. Regardless, with ups and downs I will give this episode a pass. Not perfect, but should not stop you from continuing the season. 3/5