Some people I see online: Ryuusouger's dinosaurs? Boo, they’re just Kyoryuger 2.
Me: JOKE'S ON YOU, THERE'S ALREADY A KYORYUGER 2
But seriously, I’m a little frustrated about how people are dismissing Ryuusouger so easily. I mean, I get it, we are visiting the dinosaur theme again so “soon” after Kyoryuger (6 years isn’t too soon for me, but the fact that there were ten year gaps between the dinosaur Sentais make it seem like it), the fact we're going to the “one girl four boys” team format (which doesn't honestly bother me), and the fact that we're not getting a “knights and dragons” Sentai team like what was initially thought was happening (which I do sorta agree with, feels like a missed opportunity, but since the Japanese word for “dinosaur” uses “dragon” it makes sense in retrospect). But people deriding Ryuusouger so early frustrates me because no one did it to Kyoryuger, calling it “Abaranger 2″ or the like as an insult. Like give the series a chance when it actually airs or when we start to know more about it.
To offset some of the negativity I’ve seen, here’s what I like about what I’ve seen:
- The suit designs are fantastic. I like the Dekaranger-esque “one arm is colored differently” of the suits, the knight visor-like grid patterns of the helmets, the return to wrist morphers, the belts actually having holsters for their weapons and other tools, and even how their “Kyoryuger” arm weapons aren’t actually unique to them and looks like they can swap them around (though I bet that the Ryuusouger’s have preferences). Boots could’ve been silver to break up the color scheme more, but I like them overall.
- The choice of silver as an accent color makes it feel like they’re going for a fossil theme as well, which would explain why the Red mech doesn’t have “feathers”, while Gabutyra did.
- I think having a Green Sabretooth Tiger member makes them stand out, even if the sabretooth tiger isn’t a dinosaur. It makes for a nice shoutout to Zyuranger while being their own Ranger since they’re Green and not Yellow. Speaking of Rangers, I like that Pink this time around is an ankylosaurus, bringing what usually is an auxiliary dinosaur into the main Ranger team, and that Black is a Miragaia longicollum, a type of stegosaurus, rather than using a standard one. Makes it stand out from Stegotchi and Stegoslidon that way. Red being the typical Tyrannosaurus and Blue being the typical Triceratops helps keep things familiar.
- I think that people are unfairly giving Ryuusouger shit for having “nicknames” for their mecha, since it makes it look like Kyoryuger in that regard, but Abaranger definitely did it first. Speaking of the mecha, I really like that the Red mecha is the “main” mecha, because as much as it seems “spotlight-stealing”, it sets itself apart from other Sentais since the others serve as armor forms instead. Like that's much more interesting than the “swap arms around for different combinations” mechas we’ve had for years now.
- If this is going to be Red Ranger focused, than that’s not bad honestly. All the dinosaur have had the Red Ranger be extra important. Zyuranger had Geki and Burai, the first recurring Sixth Ranger, be brothers. Abaranger had Ryouga become AbareMax. Kyoryuger had Daigo. So nothing new to me.
- Premise wise, it sounds like it'll take inspiration from all past dinosaur Sentais, so I’m curious and excited to see how they'll handle that.
So those are my thoughts. Will definitely add more later when we find out more, but I'm keeping my head up and looking forward to Ryuusouger.