Mirai Sentai Timeranger's "Only If I Can Turn Back Time" Love Stories

Since it's February and it's love month, here's my first romantically related post. Timeranger itself was a romance that actually crossed 1,000 years. The whole focus of Timeranger's love story is Tatsuya a man from the year 2,000 and Yuuri was from the year 3,000. At the same time, it happens to Domon when he falls for Honami. I wonder why didn't that douchebag Captain Ryuya warn them not to fall in love with anybody from the year 2,000? The romances that involved time-crossed ones were seen in Jetman when Raita falls for Kaori's ancestor (way back in the stone age) and in Liveman when Jou falls in love with a girl from the year 2003. Timeranger had a season long time-crossed romance.


The primary love story for Timeranger was between Tatsuya and Yuuri. I'm just glad that Yuuri had no romantic interaction with Ryuya... compared to the Time Force's Alex/Jen relationship. So how does this work? Yuuri is a cold girl who was frequently seeking revenge to the point it makes her an angry bitch. She grew up cold as she saw her own family die before her very eyes. She was cold and almost emotionless. But as time grew by, she had feelings for Tatsuya and vice-versa as the series progressed. They started off becoming professional partners then they became more than friends. They fell for each other which reminded me of how I fell for my ex-girlfriend and later, broke up with her minus the sci-fi.

The real dilemma is when Tatsuya and Yuuri are 1,000 years apart so it's basically impossible for them to be together... unless Tatsuya enters into suspended animation like Shirogane did and that Yuuri finds him which can cause trouble for his ancestry line overall (Ryuya may not be his only descendant). Later on, Ryuya arrives and shows signs of being a douchebag. He reveals to them that he allowed Dolnero to escape. Worse, Ryuya dismisses Tatsuya (his own ancestor as he is a descendant of the Asamis) and resumes command as Time Red. He appears telling them that he allowed the main villains to escape. When Ryuya arrives to resume command as Time Red, it's a hint that Tatsuya and Yuuri will never be together. There are some time protection laws to follow and somehow, falling in love with a person from two different eras is a violation.


The other love story creates a strange love polygon across time. Honami first falls for Time Yellow (not the person behind it) unaware that Time Yellow and Domon are the same person. Later on, she just assumed that Ayase and not Domon was Time Yellow creating an awkward situation. It's Honami likes Ayase but Ayase likes her, Ayase does not like her at all when it comes to romance... which is sort of like Gai likes Kaori but Kaori likes Ryu to a lesser extent. I always thought that it was a weird romance. Later episodes show that Honami discovers who Time Yellow is and that Domon loves her. But like Tatsuya and Yuuri, Domon is from the year 3,000 so it makes their romance a time-crossed one.

This was complicated when Ayase, Sion, Domon and Yuuri were brought back to the future (by force) by Captain Ryuya. Later on, Ryuya wanted to delete their memories and let the 30th Century resume its course now that time was "fixed". Wrapping things up after Ryuya's well-deserved death (I wonder which was more well-deserved, Kusaka getting his neck broken by Kiba or Ryuya's accidental death at the hands of Ayase), they all met each other in the year 2001 for the final battle. Yuuri meets Tatsuya and Domon meets Honami. How Domon and Honami had the time to get physical still makes me wonder how it happened in the middle of chaos.


After the defeat of an otherwise now totally insane Gien, it's time to say goodbye. Yuuri, Ayase, Domon and Sion must return to the 31st Century by FORCE. I always wondered why were the Timerangers from the future sent away by force instead of just enter their time machine? I guess Yasuko Kobayashi and the executives wanted added drama into the scene. It's cliche to have people return to their time period by time machine, here it was done by force. It was the painful moment of separation that audience probably expected all along.

During the final scene, one can see Tatsuya witness before his very eyes as Ayase, Sion, Domon and Yuuri disappear into the Year 3001 with not much time. He must say their final words in a short amount of time. Rather than screen time being the only constraint, the script's time is also there too. Tatsuya exchanges a few words with everyone but with Yuuri, it gets really more weepy. Yes, he is embracing a Yuuri who is about to disappear to a new future. There is much exchange of tears. I always thought that they had a more teary embrace. Tatsuya saw Yuuri disappear before his very eyes. Well, I can't blame them for all the tears they are encountering because it's a real sad scene. Sad but pretty predictable in anything where time travel is the theme.

For some Time Force comparison, I thought that keeping the Toku cliche of "let's enter the time machine and go to our time" should have been in Timeranger. For instance, at least Jen and Wesley had longer time to exchange words. On the other hand, Tatsuya and Yuuri hardly had time. As tight as he held her, she vanished with the others from their futuristic age era. Jen gave Wesley something to remember her by, Yuuri wasn't able to thanks to time constraints as she and the others were forcibly pulled back into the future. I guess Time Force was forced to tone down due to 9/11 while Timeranger had no real life event to meddle with its being dark and edgy compared to Ohranger (which was shown during the Sarin Gas incident).


One year after Timeranger ended in its epilogue, we realize that Domon and Honami have a son. Yes, they found room to procreate in the middle of chaos. He was called Domon Jr. but in Gokaiger, he was non-canonically renamed Mirai Moriyama. We have Tatsuya trying to live his own life until he was ready to join the Asami Group. We see Tatsuya run towards doppelgangers of the others... even a Naoto lookalike was there. He realizes it's not them but he is optimistic somehow he will meet his friends again.

Gokaiger as a what-if all 34 Sentai existed in one timeline series expanded the story non-canonically. Canonically for Timeranger, we don't know what happened to Domon's child after the series ended and we are left to imagine the outcome. The story was later given a non-canon sequel in the Timeranger arc of Gokaiger. Later on, Domon discovers that he had a son with Honami which brings tears to his eyes. Sideline, I thought Gokaiger did a good job in creating a timeline where all 34 Sentai existed, even when in reality, most series are NOT canon to each other.

Comments

  1. Last I remember the final episode, Honomi is going out with a Domon look alike and is running a day care center and Naota Terizawa is alive and is a humble owner of a pet shop.
    Sloppy writing!

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    Replies
    1. I doubt it that Naoto was ever alive... it was most likely just a lookalike. It's the Honami having a son by Domon I think was sloppy writing.

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