Ohranger Episodes 45-48

 

 

EPISODE 45, 46, 47, 48

Sugimura returns to write the final four episodes, as Kaiser Bulldont has realized the show's almost over and decides to launch his full-on assault! The latest Machine Beast unleashes dark particles that interfere with and take over every machine on Earth. Does this pose any threat to the machines of Baranoia? Is this a risk for them to use, and why it's used for the final assault, maybe? It's not really answered, but that would have been interesting.

The final Machine Beast is pretty cool, a centipede-shaped monster whose suit utilizes three suit actors and some puppeteering.

It's always cool, and gives a great sense of danger, when a Sentai team's base ends up being destroyed by the villains. We also see a ton of UAOH officers being cut down by Barlow soldiers and it makes you realize how shrunken the show has become since those early episodes, when you'd regularly see UAOH staff members running around. (Played by the likes of Kazutoshi Yokoyama and Yasuhiro Takeuchi!) The show eventually reduced that to just Miura. And sometimes he goes missing!

The first of these four episodes is just a big spectacle, kicking off the four-part finale. It's a shock to end on Goro, Juri, and Momo being powerless and chased. The Ohranger, for as strong and professional as the show likes to make them, are often always taking a beating or shown to be on the losing end. I kinda like that about the show, even if at the same time I'm not really buying the Baranoia are ever that competent. The finale is kicked off with big events and is exciting, but it's a little downhill from there...

I know a lot of fans like these final episodes, but they seem a bit haphazard to me. They don't fully work. The show has such a great start and then you look at these final episodes, which are a little generic to me and have Sugimura pulling a lot of ideas from nowhere. And we're relying a little too much on gimmicks here. "Miura's dead! Riki's dead! Dorin's dead! Everyone's either dead or powerless, OMG! Psych!" These episodes work as action-oriented spectacle, but they're not thematically or emotionally strong. Spectacle has been one of Ohranger's greatest strengths, I'd say moreso than being emotional, but these episodes are attempting to tie themes together and be emotional, so I have to judge them that way.

And I feel like the Ohranger are a little too careless here. Shouhei and Yuuji's been captured, Miura is thought to be dead, things are looking dire... I don't think the early Goro would have risked going to look for Miura, leaving Juri and Momo to fall into Baranoia's trap. (Sorry, Momo, but I won't defend you for not listening to Juri and walking into that super obvious trap.) The first half of this episode is just the Ohranger being careless like that. The second half is them just watching the episode alongside the audience from King Pyramidder before Dorin magically sends it to space. 

The Ohranger are taken to Dorin's homeworld, filled with nothing but a bunch of Dorin, where it's retconned/pulled from Red Puncher's ass that the Dorin are the source of Choriki and the Dorin we've been following in the show is the Dorin which guards Earth and...what, they're like the Green Lantern Corps or something? And all of a sudden Choriki is like The Force and can be used as the plot calls for? This whole segment is very Metal Hero to me, in visuals and in terms of making-up-new-shit-on-the-spot. (Including a pointless delay by having Kaiser Bulldont -- somehow, it's unexplained -- send the Ohranger through a trippy hellish dimension to pad the episode/force some drama.) What happened to the Dorin just being some mischievous race that was all killed (save one) by Baranoia way back? That the Choriki and all that was from the ancient civilization? The Choriki was initially meant to just be what powers the tech, but here it's being treated as some mystical Force-type power. Sure, there was a mystical mystery to what the power exactly is, but it never seemed to be the all-purpose Dino Guts kind of ability as depicted in these final episodes.

The cooler idea is that the Ohranger return to Earth, their brief dimensional journey measuring six Earth months, only to find that the Baranoia have finally taken over the world. (And by the world, I mean Japan. Obviously. But also because we were told in Episode 1 they were already supposed to have taken over the other big places, although I wouldn't be surprised if the show just forgot about that.) In that time, Miura has led Riki and some UAOH officers in an underground resistance, uncertain of the Ohranger's fate. (There's six UAOH officers, and at least three of them are the Ohranger suit actors. I recognize Kazutoshi Yokoyama, Kenji Takechi, and Yasuhiro Takeuchi. But are Yokoyama and Takeuchi the same UAOH dudes from earlier on?)

It's not helping the show that it's running out of money, but this scenario of a darkened Earth, with nature dying as the Baranoia take over, with Miura's underground UAOH, doesn't exactly require the biggest budget; they could have used this drab sparseness more to their advantage. But they just want to rush through it and get to Carranger, I guess. Nagaishi returns to direct Episodes 47 and 48, so 47 at least has some nice shots and atmosphere. I just feel like there's a lot of rushing in these episodes, and they lack oomph and the impact the earlier episodes had. I think a lot of my problem is just the making shit up on the spot nonsense. Think of how take charge Goro is in that premiere episode. And think of here, where the Ohranger are treated as useless and helpless until Dorin tells them to use The Schwartz. The Ohranger are more competent than this, especially Goro.

Episode 46 marks the last for Junji Yamaoka as action director. Episodes 47 and 48 feature action by Jun Murakami who is no Yamaoka. (He's not even a Niibori.) I like the fight at the beach in the end of 47, though; Murakami's doing his best, but he likes to have more editorial cheats in his fight scenes than Yamaoka, who's famous for all of those meticulously planned out wideshots or panning shots.

I would have given 47 a higher rating if they had had the balls to make Mikio a Baranoia spy all along, instead of that just being a fake-out. I don't really give a shit about Mikio, so I would have liked for there to have been a better, more important instigator in getting the Ohranger to rise again and regain their power. I don't think Goro gives a shit about Mikio, either, so I don't buy he was willing to take such a hit for him and that was the catalyst to inspiring the others and "uniting their hearts." Mikio! Who cares?! Sorry, Miyauchi, but this kind of thing called for Miura's death. He was out there fighting, he could have gotten killed and I'd buy THAT as a reason to get the Ohranger so fired up they get Choriki back. But if Sugimura just has to include a kid, how about...

The talk about needing "heart" and "uniting your hearts," the gist being this is coming down to human hearts vs machines. So I think it would have even been more interesting had Goro or the Ohranger protected Bulldont and Malteua's (just-revealed) infant. Put the kid in danger -- destruction caused by Baranoia, obviously -- have Goro take a hit, be like, "How dare you endanger your kid?" And of course Bulldont doesn't give a shit, he's the emotionless machine. But Goro put himself in danger for an innocent child's life, even if that child was a machine. That would show you the difference between the humans and machines, that would be the "human heart" being victorious. That would be a little more meaningful, giving these final episodes the...heart that they're ironically lacking.

And that would work for me more than empty comparisons between the human baby Ohranger saves and Bulldont's kid. And I certainly don't buy Hysterrier's finding a heart, pleading with the Ohranger to spare her robot grandkid when they raid the palace, guns drawn. The Ohranger being surprised to find one of the Baranoia having developed feelings and a heart could work...in another story with another character. Hysterrier was one of the crueler of the original Baranoia gang!

These final episodes just feel lazy and generic. Generic speeches about protecting nature and love and gumdrops and unicorns. You gotta laugh when Goro's speechifying about love and Bulldont is like "You weak humans and your love. Ready, Schmoopie? LOVE LOVE ATTACK!" That's the laziness, how unaware the writing is and how obvious it is that Sugimura just wants to get the hell out of town. 

Our heroes, again, feel like they don't have much presence, they're not driving the story, they're practically bystanders. They've taken a backseat now to Riki, Dorin and now the day is saved by GUNMAJIN! Sugimura and his dei ex machina... Here, once again -- and in the final episode, no less -- Gunmajin is literally dropped into the scene, the height of laziness. And this time it's Miura who makes a wish to save some of the goddamn mecha the show loves so much. (Funny that they don't have Miyauchi saying the phrase to activate Gunmajin. I'm guessing he thought that was just too damn goofy.) Our cast of heroes are so good and dedicated, even if they don't have the strongest characters, they were at least always shown to be so strong and determined and fight their own fights. But here they seem like newbs, just waiting to be bailed out by Miura's army of mecha and magical, all-powerful Choriki. (It's cool that they give Miyauchi a lot of action in these final episodes, though.)

What's the deal with the Gunmajin love? He gets the big send-off at the end and the very last shot of the series is of Gunmajin's key. Someone really overestimated this character's worth and potential popularity. He's never fit into the series! He's never been funny! He's never even been a good character! But neglect our regulars and focus on him... And, yeah, really entrust him with Bulldont's baby and Acha and Kocha. These guys are going to float through space, merge and come back a menace like V'ger.

And so the battle with Baranoia ends...for now. (Again, V'ger.) Our heroes are rewarded with hearing that they have to help restore the planet! UAOH is a job for them and will continue to be so, which is a nice little touch. Even military Sentai prior to this, like Sunvulcan and Changeman, basically hint that the heroes will just go about their regular lives after the finale. What I find curious is that they don't bother saying what Riki will get up to. He's reunited with a healed Dorin and they greet one another and run off into the woods and that's it, because we have to have a lengthy goodbye for Gunmajin. Is Riki just going to live an ordinary life? Hang around King Pyramidder all day? Go back to hibernating? Well, the show doesn't care about Riki -- never did. And I feel like he was supposed to be a much bigger deal, a more integral part of the story. He was the big deal, not Dorin.

But before you ponder any questions or realize how disappointed you might be in this final episode, the show wisely distracts you with the finale's ending credits sequence, a cool and well-made little package set to "Niji-iro Crystal Sky." Whoever put the clips together and decided to use that song deserved a raise for their contribution!

It's not a horrible final few episodes; there are worse finales. There are good ideas here. They don't always land or are rushed through, mistaking narrative shortcuts and rushing for grand reveals and an intense pace. You know the show's capable of delivering in a bigger way, so they're just disappointing. I feel like even the usually-dependable cast is like "Can't we do better than this?"