Mahou Sentai Magiranger!
Nov. 29th, 2010 11:46 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cypsiman2Magic, it is a sacred power.
Magic, it is a journey into the unknown.
Magic...It is the proof of courage!
Mahou Sentai Magiranger! It is an awesome show!
Yeah, after watching Linkara's History of Power Rangers (http://atopfourthwall.blogspot.com/search/label/HOPR), I started getting interested in looking into the Super Sentai that Power Rangers took much of its fight footage from. I started with Kyouryu Sentai Zyuranger, which was used for the very first Power Rangers series, and I was pleasantly surprised by how good it was. Then I started going through TvTropes to get an overview of which Super Sentai I wanted to watch next, and I settled on Mahou Sentai Magiranger, mostly on the basis that the Rangers got to have capes as part of their costumes.
First of all, as the name would suggest, Mahou Sentai Magiranger's main motif is "Magic", with all various accessories and powers being accessed by one of any number of magic spells. However, rather than the magic functioning as an arbitrary Deus Ex Machina that defuses tension, it is worked in very effectively in three ways; first, the source of all magic is "Courage", which basically amounts to the characters expressly having to develop themselves and improve themselves as people in order to gain access to more and more magic. Second, the magic is very consistent, with all spells being comprised of different combinations of a small set of Magic Words whose meaning can be derived and extrapolated to consistent effect. Third, the spells themselves are granted to the Magirangers by the Heaven Saints of Magitopia, who are always watching over them and thus, always know exactly what the characters need at any given moment. To put it another way, the Magirangers are the warriors of the gods, and their faith and determination is regularly rewarded.
Furthermore, in addition to the theme of "Courage" mentioned above, the other major theme of the series is "Family". All the main five rangers are brothers and sisters, members of the Ozu family, their mother was a Magiranger before them, and their father was one of the Heaven Saints. The only exception to this is the Sixth Ranger, Hikaru, but he is quickly treated as another member of the family. What this means, is that no one ranger gets to exclusively hog all the screentime to themselves. Now yes, Kai, the MagiRed Ranger, does get a little more focus and is more prone to sudden bursts of power than his brothers and sisters, but on the whole, it's kept in check and all five characters get to make regular contributions, receive focus, and ample character development. This is very important to me, as one thing I really intensely dislike, to put it mildly, is when you have a substantial ensemble cast of interesting characters, only for most of them to be shoved to the side in favor of giving over everything to the main lead, who needless to say, can't shoulder the show by themselves, no matter how interesting they may be, and they're generally not that interesting to begin with. This trap is avoided in Magiranger, and it is a much better show for it. Plus, the theme of "Family" leads to a lot of really good scenes, so it's got that going for it too.
But that's not all that Mahou Sentai Magiranger has going for it; our heroes need villains to face off against so that we can have exciting, pulse-pounding fight scenes in giant robots...quick tangent, the Magirangers do not summon their Giant Robots, they turn into them. Except for the sixth ranger, who has a magic train that turns into a Giant Robot. Anyway, Magiranger regularly cycles its way through its bad guys, resulting in three distinct arcs for the show.
In the first arc, the villains are Victory General Branken, Madou Knight Wolzard, and Yougen Spy Vancuria, all of whom serve the Hades Beast Emperor, the Absolute God N Ma. Branken is very simple and straight forward, desperately wishing for the gates to the surface to be opened so that he can wage war on the human world. He gets mad a lot and is very easily frustrated, a brute force villain. Then there is Madou Knight Wolzard, who alone among the villains is able to draw upon the power of Magic, and is therefore the only one who can send monsters up to the surface. He repeatedly fights the Magirangers, and each time he comes up with an excuse for why he doesn't finish them off, seemingly more interested in getting a good fight out of them than anything else. Also, he kills Miyuki, the heroes' mother, right before their eyes, so these fights are always charged with passion and drama. Finally, we have Yougen Spy Vancuria, who is the queen of all vampires, possessing all the strengths and none of the weaknesses. Furthermore, she is immortal, and even if you do kill her, she will come back the following night, immune to whatever delivered the killing blow. She also possesses the unique ability to travel to any world or dimension that she desires, and is most often seen keeping the Hades Beasts on task in their mission to slaughter the humans. By the end of the first arc, Branken is killed, the Magirangers summoning the aid of their mother's spirit to finish him off, and Wolzard goes missing.
The second arc has Vancuria tricking the Magirangers into releasing Madou Priest Meemy, who had previously been one of the Heaven Saints, but had betrayed his fellows to gain power from N Ma. Far more powerful than Branken, far more intelligent than Wolzard, and more than a little effete, Meemy is a devastatingly deadly enemy, and its a damn good thing that the Sixth Ranger shows up when he did, because the Magirangers just wouldn't have gotten far without him at this point. This also sees the introduction of the Hades Beastmen, who are much more intelligent and powerful than there Beast counterparts, and eventually the Hades Beastmen Kings, who even the Heaven Saints struggle to fight against. Fitting his nature as a traitor, Meemy will freely throw away the lives of his minions to gain even the slightest edge, betraying their trust in him without a second thought. And when Wolzard returns, he also takes Wolzard's Magic from him and gives it over to Vancuria, giving her a nice little powerup so that she can keep fighting against the Magirangers. Ultimately, Meemy is defeated in a duel against the Sixth Ranger, the hideous Chimera Monster he created by using the most forbidden of forbidden magics is destroyed, and Wolzard reveals a shocking truth, one which ultimately removes him from the playing field for keeps.
This, however, sets the stage for the third and deadliest arc, as the Hades Gods awaken. Ten incredibly powerful monsters, enraged at how the surface world continues to defy the will of Infershia, appear and proclaim that they shall pass judgment on the sinful surface world, and according to all the legends of Magitopia, if the people of the surface fight back against the Hades Gods, it will lead to the destruction of all life in both Earth and Magitopia alike. Each God has a very distinct attitude and personality, making their interactions amongst themselves very fun to watch. Most notable, is the manner in which they attack the surface; rather then going all at once, which they can easily do, they instead wait for the Slab of Judgment to choose which God will be allowed to go onto the surface to pass Divine Judgment. And when they arrive, they generally make a game of it, informing the Magirangers that if they can fulfill certain conditions, generally not dying before a certain time, they win. All of this is in accordance with The Dark Precepts, the rules and laws that give the Hades Gods their power, and the means by which N Ma can be revived. The battles here are truly epic, with great character development, not just for the Magirangers, but even for a few of the Hades Gods themselves! Ultimately, N Ma is successfully revived, lays waste to Magitopia, but is ultimately defeated when Magired leads the charge, demonstrating just what Infinite Courage really means.
So yeah, we've got great development for the heroes, a rotating cast of villains that keeps the tension from deflating...and then there's the badass ladies who are badass. MagiPink/Houka and MagiBlue/Urara both get ample opportunity to demonstrate their badassery, get good focus, and good character development. Miyuki's screentime is limited, but she makes damn good use of it, even from beyond the grave. Among the Heaven Saints, we have Lunagel, who made herself into the living seal on Infershia and can still kick ass even with that handicap. Then there's Snowgel, who is among the oldest of the Heaven Saints and is the one who granted the power of Magic to Miyuki in the first place. Finally, there is Archsaint Magiel, the ruler of Magitopia, who is played by the same lady who played Bandora, AKA Rita Repulsa from Power Rangers. Furthermore, there are a few surprise ladies I won't mention here, as you should see them for yourselves.. This is something I really appreciate, as its not often that you get so many great ladies who get their due in a Super Sentai series like this.
Now, this is not to say that the show is perfect, far from it; mostly, the flaws lie in that a few plot points get dropped or are never satisfactorily developed, and Lunagel does get a bit screwed over. Even so, I am able to enjoy it all without reservation.
So yeah, long story short? If you like great action, character development, and a goodly amount of badass ladies getting to be badass, you should be able to like Mahou Sentai Magiranger!
Magic, it is a journey into the unknown.
Magic...It is the proof of courage!
Mahou Sentai Magiranger! It is an awesome show!
Yeah, after watching Linkara's History of Power Rangers (http://atopfourthwall.blogspot.com/search/label/HOPR), I started getting interested in looking into the Super Sentai that Power Rangers took much of its fight footage from. I started with Kyouryu Sentai Zyuranger, which was used for the very first Power Rangers series, and I was pleasantly surprised by how good it was. Then I started going through TvTropes to get an overview of which Super Sentai I wanted to watch next, and I settled on Mahou Sentai Magiranger, mostly on the basis that the Rangers got to have capes as part of their costumes.
First of all, as the name would suggest, Mahou Sentai Magiranger's main motif is "Magic", with all various accessories and powers being accessed by one of any number of magic spells. However, rather than the magic functioning as an arbitrary Deus Ex Machina that defuses tension, it is worked in very effectively in three ways; first, the source of all magic is "Courage", which basically amounts to the characters expressly having to develop themselves and improve themselves as people in order to gain access to more and more magic. Second, the magic is very consistent, with all spells being comprised of different combinations of a small set of Magic Words whose meaning can be derived and extrapolated to consistent effect. Third, the spells themselves are granted to the Magirangers by the Heaven Saints of Magitopia, who are always watching over them and thus, always know exactly what the characters need at any given moment. To put it another way, the Magirangers are the warriors of the gods, and their faith and determination is regularly rewarded.
Furthermore, in addition to the theme of "Courage" mentioned above, the other major theme of the series is "Family". All the main five rangers are brothers and sisters, members of the Ozu family, their mother was a Magiranger before them, and their father was one of the Heaven Saints. The only exception to this is the Sixth Ranger, Hikaru, but he is quickly treated as another member of the family. What this means, is that no one ranger gets to exclusively hog all the screentime to themselves. Now yes, Kai, the MagiRed Ranger, does get a little more focus and is more prone to sudden bursts of power than his brothers and sisters, but on the whole, it's kept in check and all five characters get to make regular contributions, receive focus, and ample character development. This is very important to me, as one thing I really intensely dislike, to put it mildly, is when you have a substantial ensemble cast of interesting characters, only for most of them to be shoved to the side in favor of giving over everything to the main lead, who needless to say, can't shoulder the show by themselves, no matter how interesting they may be, and they're generally not that interesting to begin with. This trap is avoided in Magiranger, and it is a much better show for it. Plus, the theme of "Family" leads to a lot of really good scenes, so it's got that going for it too.
But that's not all that Mahou Sentai Magiranger has going for it; our heroes need villains to face off against so that we can have exciting, pulse-pounding fight scenes in giant robots...quick tangent, the Magirangers do not summon their Giant Robots, they turn into them. Except for the sixth ranger, who has a magic train that turns into a Giant Robot. Anyway, Magiranger regularly cycles its way through its bad guys, resulting in three distinct arcs for the show.
In the first arc, the villains are Victory General Branken, Madou Knight Wolzard, and Yougen Spy Vancuria, all of whom serve the Hades Beast Emperor, the Absolute God N Ma. Branken is very simple and straight forward, desperately wishing for the gates to the surface to be opened so that he can wage war on the human world. He gets mad a lot and is very easily frustrated, a brute force villain. Then there is Madou Knight Wolzard, who alone among the villains is able to draw upon the power of Magic, and is therefore the only one who can send monsters up to the surface. He repeatedly fights the Magirangers, and each time he comes up with an excuse for why he doesn't finish them off, seemingly more interested in getting a good fight out of them than anything else. Also, he kills Miyuki, the heroes' mother, right before their eyes, so these fights are always charged with passion and drama. Finally, we have Yougen Spy Vancuria, who is the queen of all vampires, possessing all the strengths and none of the weaknesses. Furthermore, she is immortal, and even if you do kill her, she will come back the following night, immune to whatever delivered the killing blow. She also possesses the unique ability to travel to any world or dimension that she desires, and is most often seen keeping the Hades Beasts on task in their mission to slaughter the humans. By the end of the first arc, Branken is killed, the Magirangers summoning the aid of their mother's spirit to finish him off, and Wolzard goes missing.
The second arc has Vancuria tricking the Magirangers into releasing Madou Priest Meemy, who had previously been one of the Heaven Saints, but had betrayed his fellows to gain power from N Ma. Far more powerful than Branken, far more intelligent than Wolzard, and more than a little effete, Meemy is a devastatingly deadly enemy, and its a damn good thing that the Sixth Ranger shows up when he did, because the Magirangers just wouldn't have gotten far without him at this point. This also sees the introduction of the Hades Beastmen, who are much more intelligent and powerful than there Beast counterparts, and eventually the Hades Beastmen Kings, who even the Heaven Saints struggle to fight against. Fitting his nature as a traitor, Meemy will freely throw away the lives of his minions to gain even the slightest edge, betraying their trust in him without a second thought. And when Wolzard returns, he also takes Wolzard's Magic from him and gives it over to Vancuria, giving her a nice little powerup so that she can keep fighting against the Magirangers. Ultimately, Meemy is defeated in a duel against the Sixth Ranger, the hideous Chimera Monster he created by using the most forbidden of forbidden magics is destroyed, and Wolzard reveals a shocking truth, one which ultimately removes him from the playing field for keeps.
This, however, sets the stage for the third and deadliest arc, as the Hades Gods awaken. Ten incredibly powerful monsters, enraged at how the surface world continues to defy the will of Infershia, appear and proclaim that they shall pass judgment on the sinful surface world, and according to all the legends of Magitopia, if the people of the surface fight back against the Hades Gods, it will lead to the destruction of all life in both Earth and Magitopia alike. Each God has a very distinct attitude and personality, making their interactions amongst themselves very fun to watch. Most notable, is the manner in which they attack the surface; rather then going all at once, which they can easily do, they instead wait for the Slab of Judgment to choose which God will be allowed to go onto the surface to pass Divine Judgment. And when they arrive, they generally make a game of it, informing the Magirangers that if they can fulfill certain conditions, generally not dying before a certain time, they win. All of this is in accordance with The Dark Precepts, the rules and laws that give the Hades Gods their power, and the means by which N Ma can be revived. The battles here are truly epic, with great character development, not just for the Magirangers, but even for a few of the Hades Gods themselves! Ultimately, N Ma is successfully revived, lays waste to Magitopia, but is ultimately defeated when Magired leads the charge, demonstrating just what Infinite Courage really means.
So yeah, we've got great development for the heroes, a rotating cast of villains that keeps the tension from deflating...and then there's the badass ladies who are badass. MagiPink/Houka and MagiBlue/Urara both get ample opportunity to demonstrate their badassery, get good focus, and good character development. Miyuki's screentime is limited, but she makes damn good use of it, even from beyond the grave. Among the Heaven Saints, we have Lunagel, who made herself into the living seal on Infershia and can still kick ass even with that handicap. Then there's Snowgel, who is among the oldest of the Heaven Saints and is the one who granted the power of Magic to Miyuki in the first place. Finally, there is Archsaint Magiel, the ruler of Magitopia, who is played by the same lady who played Bandora, AKA Rita Repulsa from Power Rangers. Furthermore, there are a few surprise ladies I won't mention here, as you should see them for yourselves.. This is something I really appreciate, as its not often that you get so many great ladies who get their due in a Super Sentai series like this.
Now, this is not to say that the show is perfect, far from it; mostly, the flaws lie in that a few plot points get dropped or are never satisfactorily developed, and Lunagel does get a bit screwed over. Even so, I am able to enjoy it all without reservation.
So yeah, long story short? If you like great action, character development, and a goodly amount of badass ladies getting to be badass, you should be able to like Mahou Sentai Magiranger!
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