My Shifting Opinions On Dekaranger

Dekaranger is a hit show that happened last decade and somehow endured itself beyond the 2010s. It had a movie that took place ten years after it ended, it had a rather mature crossover with Gavan, and it also was featured in one episode of Kyuranger set in an alternate universe. I would say that Dekaranger is one show that I do like a lot but also have opinion shifts. Heck, I have opinion shifts towards everything like how I wasn't always into newer Super Sentai until I finally decided I had an overdose of older Super Sentai, how I currently think newer Kamen Rider is better done than newer Super Sentai, and since it's OPINION and facts are facts - hence my OPINIONS are subject to change. Dekaranger is no different.

I did have stupid reasons to watch the show. While I didn't cry over Ayumi Kinoshita's marriage but I had a heavy crush on the fictional Jasmine. That stupid reason magnetized me into the show. What kept me into the show further though was the rather well-written plot. You can just think that it doesn't matter how much I think Kimberly is hotter than Mei - I usually just drop Mighty Morphin' in favor of its first season source material Zyuranger. The Dekarangers really turned out to be way more tolerable than their SPD counterparts for me. Ban may be a loudmouth but he would NEVER skip an obstacle course. Hoji ends up as my favorite character due to his focus episodes such as when he does a Rocky fight or his break-up with a woman. Maybe, I could also name that Umeko may be silly but it's way more believable than Syd in SPD. Okay, I'm getting offensive there!

Then I thought of the weird set-up where there's hardly a central organization that the fought against. Instead, they were so focused on Alienizers doing different crimes of the week than fighting a central organization. Then, you have the recurring villain Agent Abrella who didn't always get involved every week. Rather, Abrella was just that overarching villain who would probably grow on fans as a fan-favorite villain. Abrella's modus operandi was to serve his criminal clients while wanting to destroy the Special Police Dekaranger. He's quite a unique villain actually.

Watching other shows from Toei did start to change what I thought of Dekaranger. I still think Dekaranger is a great series but there's just other stuff. In fact, some shows that influenced what I think about GoGoFive also affected Dekaranger. I would say that one good example is how watching Winspector, Solbrain, and hopefully more of Exceedraft and Janperson (that is, subbed) got me some opinion shifts. I think the police drama in Winspector and Solbrain is better-written. Solbrain would later introduce the menacing human villain Takaoka. Takaoka may have only arrived midseason but I thought his presence was probably more relatable than Abrella. Sure, Abrella may not be someone Winspector and Solbrain can handle but Takaoka had more interesting drama going on. I also dare to say that I always find Chief Masaki of both Winspector and Solbrain to be a more interesting mentor than Doggy Kruger. I guess it's the very presence of Hiroshi Miyauchi.

Dekaranger also reminds me why I nearly lost interest in Super Sentai in general in the 2000s. I was actually concerned with how the fight scenes for both the cast members and the stuntmen are considerably less violent than it used to be. You can compare the amounts of violence between Timeranger and Gaoranger to see how significantly lower it has been. I also think that a lot of Super Sentai since Gaoranger have been focused mostly on lighter and softer which somehow worked like a charm. GoGoFive may not be as well-told as Winspector for me but it had way more interesting action scenes than Dekaranger. Though I'd confess that Dekaranger does beat Timeranger in being a police Super Sentai. However, Timeranger does contain more drama and action than Dekaranger has. Yet, it was also Dekaranger that got me back into Super Sentai in the 2000s though not as much as I used to like it.