Gosei Sentai Dairanger
Gosei Sentai Dairanger is a Japanese tokusatsu television series. It was the seventeenth production in the long-running Super Sentai metaseries of television tokusatsu dramas produced by Toei Company, following Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger. It was originally broadcast from February 19, 1993 to February 11, 1994. Toei gave this series the name Star Rangers for international distribution.
Elements from Dairanger were adapted into the second season of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, specifically the action sequences between the giant robots and some of the monsters. None of the Dairanger costumes were used in Power Rangers, except Kiba Ranger's, which was adapted into the White Ranger's costume for Mighty Morphin Power Rangers for the remainder of Season 2 and throughout Season 3: the suits from the previous season, Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger were instead used for the other Rangers in that show. The core Dairanger costumes in the footage were not used in Power Rangers until Power Rangers Super Megaforce.
In July 2015, Shout! Factory announced that they would release "Gosei Sentai Dairanger: The Complete Series" on DVD in North America. On November 10, 2015, Dairanger was released on DVD in North America. This is the second Super Sentai series to be released in North America. In addition on May 23, 2016, Shout! streamed the series on their website.
Story
Eight thousand years ago, the Daos civilization flourished in Southern China. The civilization consisted of three separate tribes: the Dai, the Shura and the Gorma ; which lived in harmony. However, one day, the Gorma Tribe decided to take over the Daos civilization and the world, beginning the war between the Gorma and Dai tribes. The war between the Gorma, led by the Gorma Triumvarate, and the Dai continued for 5,000 years until the Mythical Qi Beasts appeared to oppose the Gorma, whose Qi powers had increased to the point that they could turn themselves into monsters. Five Dai warriors' Qi powers had increased to the point where they could control the Mythical Qi Beasts. The war ended with the disappearance of both the Dai and Gorma tribes and the Shura scattered around the world. In the present day, the Gorma Tribe, one of the Daos' two missing branches, arose to take over the world. To counter them, Master Kaku assembled a team of five youths with high levels of Qi, who became the Dairangers.Characters
Dairangers
The descendants of the Dai Tribe who battle the Gorma.; who became a Dairanger against his will.
;. Has a tendency to go rushing into battle without thinking.
;Dairangers#Rin: Master Kaku's niece from China, she is the only member capable of Qi control when not transformed.
;Dairangers#Kou: A 9-year old who pulled out Yufang's Byakkoshinken. A somewhat perverted boy, he often grabs Rin's breasts and looks up her skirt at times, and wishes to marry her. New to fighting, he is not particularly strong. While Kou is of Dai blood, he is also part Gorma on his father's side.
The Gorma Tribe
The Gorma Tribe are the antagonists of the series. Eight thousand years ago they were the military of the three tribes, but decided to take the world for themselves and destroy the other two. The Gorma are humans who have mastered You Power and gained the ability to become monsters. Their leader is the Gorma Emperor with many other divisions under him. However, it was revealed that most of the higher aristocracy had been killed centuries before the series even began. It was thought that Shadam had secretly made clay versions of them all in a bid to be emperor himself. However, as he himself turned out to be clay, it's debatable who created the clay copies. While the You Power the Gorma uses gives them great power, it also has damaged their mental stability, as the most powerful Gorma are almost completely insane as seen with the Gorma Emperor and those before him due to the Earth Shaking Jewel.Daijinryuu
Daijinryuu is a colossal god-like entity who preserves the natural balance of the world, referred to as the "Great King of Fear that will destroy the Earth" by Kameo/Daimugen. He appears whenever battles have gone too far, like the ones between the Dairangers and the Gorma. Daijinryuu is a neutral being, but has no tolerance for whoever threatens to disrupt the natural order of things. Daijinryuu arrived on the planet in Rising Dragon Mode, only to transform into the bipedal Dragon God Mode, his feet as big as Daimugen's shell.He is also capable of firing lightning bolts with immense destructive power. During his first appearance, he attacks the Great Famous Pachinko Player and Ryuuseioh. The universe's will that he obeyed told him that the two warring factions had to agree a cease-fire, so Daijinryuu would spare the lives of everyone on Earth and the planet itself, but he gave a warning to both the Dairangers and the Gorma not to incur his wrath by destroying most of Tokyo.
The annoyed dragon crushed the monster to death under his massive foot, then turned and disassembled Dairen'oh with a lightning bolt. He then attempted to crush Ryuuseioh. Ryuuseioh was saved by Daimugen, who hid Ryuuseioh inside of his shell, but was nearly crushed by Daijinryuu. Daijinryuu let them live because of the universe's will and the truce between the Dairangers and the Gorma.
When the Dairangers dealt with Ikazuchi, Daijinryuu seemingly put many civilians in Tokyo under his control, lining them up on top of buildings to fall to their deaths, before Jiaxu counter-acted the spell. Daijinryuu made his final appearance to destroy the Gorma Palace, seeing that Shadam and the Gorma were the cause of all the trouble. To calm him down, the Lailai Balls and the Great Earth Shaking Jewel scattered to the four winds on their own will.
Episodes
Movie
The film version of Gosei Sentai Dairanger premiered in Japan on April 17, 1993, at Toei Super Hero Fair '93. Directed by Shōhei Tōjō and written by Noboru Sugimura, the movie was originally shown as a triple feature alongside Kamen Rider ZO and the film version of Tokusou Robo Janperson. The main villain of the film is an original monster, named the Duke of Trump, who gathers four of the Dairangers' previous adversaries to defeat them. While the movie was filmed between episodes 5–8, its story actually takes place between episodes 8 and 9 due to the appearance of Dairen-ō. Shohei Shibata, the young actor who played Hiroshi in Kamen Rider ZO later joined the cast of Dairanger as Akomaru, son of the main villain Shadam.Cast
- Ryo of the Heavenly Fire Star: Keiichi Wada
- Daigo of the Heavenly Illusion Star: Tatsuya Nōmi
- Shoji of the Heavenly Gravity Star: Ei Hamura
- Kazu of the Heavenly Time Star: Keisuke Tsuchiya
- Rin of the Heavenly Wind Star: Natsuki Takahashi
- Kou of the Howling New Star: Hisashi Sakai
- Master Kaku: Koji Naka
- Grandmaster Yufang: Takeshi Kuwabara
- Kujaku: Masako Morishita
- Kou's Mother: Mikiko Miki
- Kameo: Sugisaku Imagawa
- Gorma XV: Munemaru Kōda
- Commander Gara: Akiko Amamatsuri
- Lieutenant Commander Zydos: Maroshi Tamura
- Commander Shadam: Rintarō Nishi
- General Tenpou: Chūkō Ueda
- Akomaru: Shohei Shibata
- Jin Matoba: Yutaka Hirose
Voice actors
- Narrator: Hironori Miyata
- Byakkoshinken: Wataru Abe
- Daimugen: Ikko Tadano credited as Tomihisa Naruse
- General Kamikaze: Nobuyuki Hiyama
- Master Phone: Akiko Muta
- Chief Tombstone: Takuzou Kamiyama
- Kabuki Novice: Shigeru Chiba
Guest actors
- Kazu's clone: Daisuke Tsuchiya
- Shōichirō Takamura : Ryosuke Kaizu
Songs
- "Gosei Sentai Dairanger"
- * Lyrics: Saburo Yatsude
- * Composition: Katsuo Ohno
- * Arrangement: Kenji Yamamoto
- * Artist: New JACK Takurō
- "Oretachi Muteki Sa!! Dairanger"
- * Lyrics: Saburo Yatsude
- * Composition: Katsuo Ohno
- * Arrangement: Kenji Yamamoto
- * Artist: New JACK Takurō