Dynaman As A Truly Explosive Improvement For Super Sentai In The 1980s (Spoilers)

Hirohisa Soda is often hailed as Hail to the King or the best innovator ever. I've already seen all of the Soda era series to finally judge things. I really had no idea that the head writer of Dai Sentai Goggle V up to Chikyu Sentai Fiveman was all but one person until many years later. Yeah, that's how clueless I was until the Internet. I watched all the series in a rather jumbled order and that's okay. Super Sentai doesn't operate with too many throwbacks. Some people could start with something bad and then end up doing better. In the case of Soda, I think Goggle V was pretty much So Okay It's Average. Goggle V for me was fun but it can be overly cheesy, there are times the rangers feel too OP (especially with group gymnastic techniques), and the Deathdark villains aren't terrible but not amazing either.

Before that, the 1980s started to kick off with other So Okay It's Average shows. I watched both Denzi Sentai Denziman and Taiyo Sentai Sun Vulcan. Maybe, some fans of Power Rangers aren't going to enjoy the late Soga Machiko's earlier role as Queen Hedrian. It was interesting to see where Machiko started but I think his best performance was as Witch Bandora in Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger. Even worse, Sun Vulcan was cursed to have one of its main heroes commit a criminal. Asao Kobayashi did a criminal in 2013 (which would be 10 years ago) - in which he sexually assaulted a HIGH SCHOOL GIRL. Yeah, I wonder if there's a curse of Super Sentai too?

I think Soda's performance between Goggle V and Kagaku Sentai Dynaman might be comparable to some video game franchises. Some video game franchises did well in the first entry but ended up aging badly when the second entry came. Would you play Megaman 2 or the first Megaman game? Would you play Tekken 2 or the first Tekken game? Would you play Mortal Kombat II or the first Mortal Kombat game? After seeing the first Street Fighter game - I definitely would play Street Fighter II! The same may have happened. Goggle V became a hit, Indonesians do have a very soft spot for it, but what can't be denied is how the series pretty much So Okay It's Average. I feel that both Soda and producer Takeyuku Suzuki wanted to put the danger at a higher level. Hence, we got Dynaman as a result. 

Dynaman started some very daring new moves with the budget 

Back then, most ranger suits were usually made from cotton-based suits. It's really that obvious and I don't think the cotton suits aged that well. Dynaman probably decided that it'd rack up the budget with the power of spandex. Spandex has proven itself to be better than cotton with better durability, flexibility, better color quality, dries faster, and it's easier to maintain to name a few benefits. I believe the budget had to be increased but it was worth it. Ever since then, Super Sentai started to use spandex more often. However, Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters decided to use leather for a reason. Maybe, the high sales of toys from Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger allowed for a bigger budget.

It wasn't just the costumes for the heroes and the villains. Back then, CGI was just in what I'd call an infancy stage. Zord scenes were still filmed using stop-motion Dynaman though went overboard with the explosions. I guess they went for that trope given the name DYNAman. The amount of explosions feels like Toei had Michael Bay with them in 1982. Bay did start getting known in the 1990s. A crazy thought was that Bay may have started his career here BTS. It's hard for me not to joke that Bay was involved also because of the explosions, awkward designs, fanservice, and gangsters.

This would also go for several suitless scenes. Sure, Junichi Haruta plays the black ranger and fortunately, a different character. What I think was interesting was how Koji Unogi may have improved the water-based blue ranger motif with his character Yousuke Shima. Koji shows off some great martial arts moves one way or another. Maybe, I'd like to say that Koji is my second favorite character, maybe even the first. It was also interesting to see Kosaku Nango's character as a gun-slinger. Yu Tokita's use of a gun out-of-suit (while the guns weren't introduced until Chodenshi Bioman then not all seasons would have handguns) was also a great addition. I even enjoyed Satoshi Okita's motorcycle scene in an earlier episode. Sayoko Hagiwara as Rei Tachibana impresses with her sword-fighting that she did them again in Choshinsei Flashman as the villain Ley Nefel. 

Sure, Dynaman doesn't get the development we get later. We don't really know much about the parents (except for Hokuto mentioning his LATE MOTHER) of the heroes or what they did before the show. It wasn't until the 1990s that Super Sentai started to add more background stories for the hero. What I can't deny is that the dynamics are still fun to watch. The development was pretty much a seed of what writers would want to do in later installments. 

I think the Jashinka Empire was a step up from previous evil organizations

Jashinka or the EVILution Empire might be pretty much For the Evulz. Sure, they do have that fantastic caste system where rank was determined by a number of tails. I think a lot of older organizations were pretty much flat or generic. It's already expected that some older Super Sentai will never tell you WHY the villains turned evil. Zyuranger told us why Bandora went evil but Denziman never told us why Hedrian went evil. Hedrian was just For the Evulz or Stupid Evil in some way. However, there are dynamics that really made the show stand out in some ways.

The Evilution Empire evolved from reptiles. That gives them their tails. It was nice to take a step up by making a father-and-son villain team. Emperor Aton has Prince Megiddo. I do think Megiddo's rivalry with Hokuto Dan/Dyna Red was a more dynamic start. Sure, we saw Kenichi Akama/Goggle Red fight with General Deathgiller BUT the clash wasn't so developed. Megiddo hates Dyna Red because the former lost his middle tail in an early encounter. This would also lead to Megiddo's eventual character development. There's also the rivalry of Rei Tachibana and Princess Chimera. I may still feel Chimera was just meh. I also blame it on actress Mari Kouno who can come off nearly as weak as Jennifer Yen in Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue. Fortunately, Chimera being a lesser villain doesn't make that weaker performance a big issue. 

The villains started to do what they could do. For instance, I think the late Masashi Ishibashi got a part worthy of him. Sure, Ishibashi as High Priest Hedder in Battle Fever J was good and he had a great fight to write him off. It was a shame that Kosoku Sentai Turboranger only made Ishibashi do a really badass scene when Rehda's turn to be written off came. General Kar is one of the most worthy villains to ever sit on the set. 

It was nice to see the hothead idiot Prince Megiddo. Megiddo's probably just that idiot villain who wants to show his father Emperor Aton how EVIL he can get. The actor Takeki Hayashi does a good job of being the villain. It sure takes a lot of prowess to be a villain that would go against Kazuo Niibori in the red spandex. Megiddo goes from Stupid Evil to discovering one vital plot. Megiddo lost all his tails and was disinherited by his father. However, Megiddo became the Dark Knight (and it's just way too predictable that it was him), and that added layers. Megiddo would later discover from a scroll that any member of their clan to get a tenth tail WOULD DIE. It was a nice plot twist by applying Social Darwinism where one climbs up the ladder by effort, hard work, and smarts. Megiddo started off as an idiot to someone who could cause that much trouble. This character development gave Aton a new impression. Megiddo defeating his father Aton (and man is Aton STUPID) in battle soon got him the right to the throne. Though the finale gave Megiddo the typical supervillain stupidity since it's a kid's show, right?

The addition of General Zenobia made more ambition. Ritsuko Fujiyama does a delightful performance that I can overlook Chimera. Recruiting Zenobia proves how Aton is simply Stupid Evil. Would you seriously want to re-trust a person who tried to betray you? Aton and Zenobia both believe that the one who gets a tenth tail will become all-powerful. Zenobia did the honor of cutting Aton's tails off. What Zenobia never expected was that the Dark Knight and Aton were one and the same. Sure, the audience can predict it BUT not the main characters. Zenobia even went as far as to frame Kar. I felt pity for Kar when he died trying to prove his loyalty. Zenobia later thought she'd become immortal after getting the ten tails. Megiddo used Zenobia as an example as to why the tenth tail story was but a fable. Zenobia ended up dying as a victim of her own Stupid Evil tendencies. I think death by battle was too good for that bitch because she was plain greedy. 

The show also started significant upgrades for monsters of the week. Sure, Goggle V did create Neometal Mozoos. However, the midseason villain upgrade started to change the designs. The designs went from the normal animal-based MOTW with questionable intellect. Soon enough, the midseason featured MOTWs that would be improved versions of the Destron monsters. 

Closing words

I don't think Dynaman will get that much appreciation. Sure, there are some  Power Rangers fans checking it out. Some actually gave it positive views. I was amazed that Kaiju No Kami (a fan of Power Rangers) gave it a 4/5 score since he hasn't given other older Super Sentai that high a score. Kaiju only gave Hikari Sentai Maskman a passing grade of 3/5 while giving Chodenshi Bioman a 2/5. I don't expect it to be that appreciated. At least, it's getting some recognition and I'm actually glad about that!