Warning:  If you're on a dial-up connection you may have to read this sentence and several others repeatedly until the image you're waiting on to download has finished.

This is a thread about a live-action, super-hero show entitled Dekaranger, a part of a long-running series of shows in Japan classified as sentai that Mighty Morphing Power Rangers was derived off of and continues to be so.  More importantly this is a thread about episode 17 of Dekaranger a.k.a. the coolest sentai episode eVaR.  The sheer awesomeness of this episode compelled me to recreate the highlights of the episode on a forum where nobody probably cares about it.  Such a situation never stopped me before though...

Before I begin, I want to introduce the cast of characters to you so that you'll have a legend of sorts if you can't remember who is who.

Akaza Ban-Ban:  The single, most awesome, Japanese man in existence.  Akaza Ban-Ban or just "Ban" is a reckless, gung-ho detective that winds up becoming the leader of the Special Police Dekaranger unit on Earth.  The Special Police force is essentially an intergalactic police force that monitors the activities of dangerous, wanted criminals referred to as Alienizers.  The Earth branch of the Special Police force is run by a dog-like alien named Doggie Krugger.  When there is an emergency, Doggie orders the Dekaranger unit to go into action.  Ban is the red ranger or Deka-Red.

Hoji:  Hoji was the former leader of the Dekaranger unit.  He is a level-headed, perfectionist and an extremely good marksman.  As such, he tends to clash with Ban's personality and professionalism greatly.  (In fact, the first few episodes feature Ban and Hoji beating the crap out of each other.)  Hoji is Deka-Blue.

Sen:  Sen is the odd, nice guy.  He is able to follow leads and make connections where the others can not.  (He has to do a handstand in order to utilize this skill however.)  He generally does not conflict with any of the other team members, although Ban disliked Sen's easy-going nature at first because he thought that Sen did not take his role seriously.  Sen is Deka-Green.

Umeko:  Umeko likes to take baths.  She does most of her thinking there.  That aside, she's also the "cheerleader" of the Dekaranger unit so to speak.  She brings the group up when they're down, and she also serves as the "right-hand man" for Jasmine, the other female in the Deka Ranger unit.  Umeko is also quite good at disguising herself and going undercover.  (Although she does botch a stake-out in this episode.)  She is Deka-Pink.

Jasmine:  Jasmine is the "mother" of the group so to speak.  She mostly keeps to herself due to a painful past, but she's extremely wise and a valuable member to the team.  Jasmine is also psychic.  She wears special gloves over her hands to inhibit her power.  By taking off her gloves and placing her hands on an object or a person, she can peer into the object's past and/or some aspect of a person's mind.  Jasmine is Deka Yellow.

Swan:  Swan is the lead scientist/engineer at the Deka-Base in Earth.  She's responsible for developing many of the technologies the Earth dekaranger unit employs to deal with Alienizers.  She is also the girlfriend/spouse? of Doggie Krugger (I think.)  (I believe Swan has the ability to transform into a Dekaranger, but I haven't seen her do so yet.)

Doggie Krugger:  Doggie is a highly-respected man in the Special Police force and also the head of the Earth division.  He respects each member of the Dekaranger unit, but he often chooses to employ "tough love" in order to teach the team important lessons.  He also has the ability to transform into a Dekaranger, but he only does so as a last resort.  When transformed, he wields a tremendously powerful sword known as the D-Sword Vega.  Doggie is also an incredible swordsman so that adds to his badass-ness.  He is Deka-Master.

Murphy:  Murphy is the sentient robotic pooch of the Dekaranger unit.  At first, he was rather rambunctious (and unhelpful for that matter,) but Umeko earned his respect, and he now loyally answers the Dekarangers' calls when they are in trouble.  Murphy also serves as part of the Dekarangers arsenal.  He can transform his body into a giant bazooka of sorts.

So now on to the episode...

The episode starts off with the Dekarangers at a stake-out.  As of late, there has been a lot of drug trafficking of a substance known as Devil's Spice.  The Dekarangers are waiting on the buyer and seller to arrive and make the exchange.  Umeko is growing impatient and forgetting who will play what role in apprehending the criminals once the transaction has been completed.

So the buyer and seller arrive, the transaction is about to be made, but Umeko rushes in too half-hazardly and trips over some oil drums which alerts both the buyer and the seller.  Four of the dekarangers manage to apprehend the buyer, and Jasmine secretly snuck off to chase after the seller.   She succeeds and retrieves the drug.  (There is more to it than this, especially the whole part about jumping onto a moving vehicle and a car eventually going boom, but I want to get to the humorous aspect of the episode as soon as possible.)  The rest of the Dekarangers congratulate Jasmine, but Umeko is really taking her mistake badly.



Jasmine retrieves the cannister of Devil's Spice.

Umeko looks up to Jasmine greatly, and she feels that if she's going to be of any use to the team, then she needs to change and be more like Jasmine.  (Of course, this decision is made while she's taking a bath.)  Normally Umeko wears her hair up, but when she lets it down, she (conveniently) looks like Jasmine.  She has never worn her hair down however.  So the team is rather shocked.



Umeko makes an entrance, complete with hair blowing in the wind and jazz music playing in the background.



Doggie being speechless (and dropping what he was reading as well)

So the team is still shocked, but Umeko tries to play it off cooly.  She even tries to incorporate all these extra phrases into her speech, further bewildering the rest of the group.  If that's not enough, she takes it a step further and tries to mimic Jasmine's ability to read minds.  The narrator steps in at this time to say, "Umeko is not a psychic, so when she touches him, [Ban] she senses nothing."  The narrator had a serious tone when he said that, but it worked well for dead-pan humor.  Devoid of any psychic ability, Umeko does a swooning faint and says, "Sorry, but I am at my limit."



Umeko at her limit (in being convincing...)

Ban's response to all this was a "What...", a sudden jerk, and a "... the hell?"

At about this time, Swan pages the rest of the team and informs them of the contents of the drug they confiscated.  It  turns out that it's composed of several illegal drugs (go figure,) and it is a mood-altering substance when mixed with food, (think futuristic hash brownies on a much larger scale.)   She also informs the team that Murphy discovered more of the drug at a Chinese restaurant.  (I think Murphy actually injested some of the food because he's freaking out in the background.)

Ban, Sen, and Hoji head out to the restaraunt.  They're informed by a hostess that the restaraunt is partially reserved by a special party, but Wan, the wierd headmaster of the restaurant, greets the three dekarangers and asks them why they are at his restaurant.  The three play it off cooly and explain that they're just hungry and wanted some food.  So the headmaster escorts them (in a very odd and eager manner,) to another section of the restaurant.



Wan being Odd

So Ban's response to all of this was, "If you think it's suspicious, then it is.  If you don't, then it's not, right?"

So the three of them sit down at the table, and Ban and Sen are very impressed by the display of food.  Ban is ready to dig in, and Sen says, "It does look good..." but Hoji warns them and reminds them that they are at the restaurant to investigate.  Right after Hoji says that, the food begins to give off an aroma.  Hoji takes a whiff of it and gets a buzz.  He looks over to the others and they're already digging in.  Hoji tries to tell them to stop, but he is overcome by the aroma.



Sen is eating contently.  Hoji is grabbing what he wants.  Ban is eating an entire roast duck like a rack of BBQ ribs.

And I think I'm going to end the first post at this point.   Hopefully this post  will be long enough so that the next post will be on a second page.

Edit:  And damn it wasn't...

I can't wait to see how this turns out.

tell us more, and tell us if any western shows get on TV there.

I'm sorry. I've been keeping up with this for a while now and I have one solid question for you Kain.  WTF IS THIS?!

I could have sworn you were in the channel when I first started talking about this series a month or two ago. :p  Anyhow, for those that don't know, I am a huge fan of sentai and giant monsters.  Generally, I don't watch Power Rangers anymore (mostly because I just don't watch TV in general,) but I still read through the episode summaries of each series and whatnot.  Even though much of the plot of each series as well as the dialogue seems horribly corny at times, there are still certain aspects of the show that compel me to follow it.  I like certain core themes in the whole good VS evil thing (compassion, sacrifice, vengeance etc.).  To me, the Power Ranger series and especially the Japanese shows it's adapted off of embody those themes.

Oh and to be honest, I thought that Dekarangers was going to have a horrible story-line with horrible characters and horrible powers.  I just happened to stumble across a website that was doing fan-translations of the series, and I decided to download a single episode to see what I thought.  Luckily, I was proven wrong, very wrong indeed.  (Although the next series coming out to Japan is about magic... *shudder*  I seriously wonder how the hell they'll adapt that one here.)  With a few exceptions, the twenty one episodes I have seen of Dekaranger have been better than most of the episodes of Power Rangers I have seen in the last 11 years.   I also know that several episodes of Dekaranger will never be wholly adapted for the new Power Rangers SPD due to their context whether it be about drugs, bombings, or ancient Japanese culture.

Right then, time to finish off this episode summary.

Liaru charges towards Jasmine and Umeko grabbing them by the neck and forcing them outside.  There he manages to seperate the two from himself long enough to reveal his (pen) ultimate technique, intoxication.  He reaches down for the jug at his side, uncorks it, and starts madly chugging the liquor inside.  After getting shit-faced enough, he belches and makes a comment about how tasty Earth sake is.  Umeko responds by commenting on how much he reeks of sake, and Jasmine wonders how Liaru will be able to beat them while being drunk.



I want to see Liaru and Stone Cold Steve Austin have a chugging contest.



I'm sure many of the WHS forum regulars would disagree with Liaru on this one...

So Liaru proceeds to beat the shit out of Umeko and Jasmine.  He parries most of their attacks with his metal jug, and his attacks are too unpredictable for the two girls to dodge.  After giving Jasmine and Umeko  their first beat down, Liaru starts showing off some of his drunken special abilities.  One of them is called, "Space Drunken Fist" in which Liaru breathes out a stream of fire...  The force of this attack sends the two dekarangers sprawling backward and causes them to demorph.



Self-rewarding and highly satisfying...



Oh no!  Not the Space Drunken Fist!



Talk about being misled...

Both Jasmine and Umeko run for cover to think of their next plan of attack.  Liaru is fine with this as he's content with getting more sloshed and taunting them at the moment.  Umeko comes up with an idea, but she quickly casts it aside, because she thinks her ideas are worthless next to Jasmine's.  Umeko continues to panic, and Jasmine resolves the matter by bitch-slapping Umeko and explaining to her that Jasmine made a mistake for ever respecting her.  This of course upsets Umeko, but it gives her the push she needed to start acting like her old self again.  So then the plan goes into action...

Umeko charges towards Liaru and (conveniently) whips out some rope.  She quickly tosses it around Liaru's jug of sake and snatches it away from him.  (The look on Liaru's face is great although quite hard to capture for a screenshot. )  With a determined look on her face, Umeko proceeds to chug the rest of the sake in the jug.  Feeling the buzz, Umeko stumbles about trying to regain her balance from standing still and winds up tossing the jug into a nearby stream.  Liaru is still digesting the loss of his sake, and Jasmine is almost as surprised.  After coming to terms with her balance again, Umeko readies herself and challenges Liaru to some drunken fist.



Umeko is starting to feel the buzz.



Liaru expressing dismay.



Liaru expressing pain.



Umeko expressing drunkeness.



Umeko expressing "Gettsu!".

And crap...  I can't attach any more images to this post it seems.  The pictures aren't loading properly.  So I'll just continue this on a new post.  And I'll get to it right after I hit "Add Reply" this time

Intresting is a strange way.

Tell us more about china, including the TV, how the people are, stuff like that. I've always been fasinated by the place, but never been past germany.

I love this world. It's a shame it's not real.

I'm egerly awaiting the next installment here in England.