How I would fix LupinRanger vs PatRanger Part 1

Sourced from The Tokusatsu Network

Kaitou Sentai Lupinranger VS Keisatsu Sentai Patranger is the latest Sentai series from Toei. The series is about two Sentai Teams, the basis for all the Power Ranger Series, that are in conflict with one another with the premise being that they would eventually join sides. The teams were basically a team of three cops (The Patrangers) and a team of three thieves (The Lupinrangers). Now as a long time Power Rangers fan, I was excited to watch this series with my roommates, wanting to see a premise with promise. However, to this day, I consider it to be one of the worst Sentai Series of all time. The reason I and my friends feel this way is that the show has made many missteps in terms of character writing, storytelling, not developing its main arc, and balancing out the portrayal of its main cast as equal, only focusing on portraying one side in a truly positive light.

This makes me angry most of all because LuPatranger was a series that had promise to it. This could have had great character moments with two teams clashing, but ultimately coming together for the greater good of stopping their monstrous foes, the Ganglers. However, there are several factors that hold LuPat back from actually being good.

The first is that the Lupinrangers are not so much thieves as they are retrieval agents. The premise of the show is that items from the collection of Arsene Lupin, the original Gentleman Thief, have been stolen by the Interdimensional Criminal Group Gangler, lead by the crime lord Dogranio Yaboon. While the Patrangers would take on the Ganglers and their mooks, the LupinRangers would steal the piece from the Gangler of the week that would have one in a safe kept literally in their person, thus allowing them to use that item piece's special ability. This makes the Lupinrangers more heroic than Roguish, as the original Arsene Lupin was. This is compounded by the fact that the main goal of the Lupinrangers is that once they get all the Collection Pieces, they will be able to make a wish that will resurrect their loved ones. The reason this bothers me is that it takes away the gray area that thieves are supposed to inhabit. While the Patrangers are meant to be lawful good, the Lupinrangers should be more Neutral. Yeah, they are out for themselves and their own personal goals of saving their loved ones, but they still have a moral compass that recognizes true evil when they see it. Thus the reason they fight the Ganglers.

The second is that because of the heroic portrayal of the Lupinrangers, the Patrangers are superfluous. They have no real personal drive beyond the professional need to stop the Ganglers while the Lupinrangers are finding the pieces with the hopes that they will be able to revive their loved ones after they were killed by the Gangler known as Zamigo Delma. This gives them a personal motive to stop the Ganglers, but the Patrangers are mostly in this to preserve the peace. Combined with the fact that the Patrangers are not as likable as the Lupinrangers, the Patrangers are not needed in their own show.

The third problem is that despite a premise, the show heavily sticks with the monster of the week formula that has been associated with Power Rangers and Super Sentai. There is no real arc to this series, no real story development outside of the introduction of the Sixth Ranger Noel. There is also the problem that the Ganglers are not really compelling or interesting as villains. Aside from the premise that the Ganglers are fighting to one day succeed Dogranio, they have nothing really interesting about them that sets them apart from past villains. They have no real personality and no real character to any of them.

This is why I feel that a complete series reboot and rewrite would be perfect for LuPat. It has a premise that is deserving of a good story and it has a talented cast of actors that clearly are having fun with the show. Thus, I am going to give my ideas of how I would fix LuPat's problems and what I would do differently.

1. The Lupinrangers being actual thieves. As stated above, the Lupinrangers are more retrieval experts than actual thieves. While they have modeled their suits after the great Phantom Thief Arsene Lupin, they really have nothing in common with him. Lupin may have been a gentleman, but he was a thief through and through. Thus, I would have thievery be part of the Lupinranger's backstories. The Lupins would be part of thieving families that eventually decided to retire from the life. Thus, when the loved ones of the Lupins are killed, they have a reason to get back into the game and use what their families taught them. They are reluctant of course to use the skills they have been taught, but decide that if it will get their loved ones back, Kairi Yano's Brother (Kairi is Lupin Red), Tooma Yoimachi's (Lupin Blue) fiancee, and Umika Hayami's (Lupin Yellow) best friend, they will do what it takes. They will still retain the same personalities they have now since their characterizations are fine as they are. Kairi will still be the good hearted, but tenacious leader. Tooma will still be the straight man, having a straight face while saying clever dialogue. Umika will remain the little sister/heart of the team, the moral conscience of the team, keeping them from going too far. It will later be revealed that the Collection Pieces have been sold off multiple times over the years and many of them are now in the hands of various collectors. Thus, the Lupinrangers are actual thieves and stealing from people. Some of the victims would be villainous of course, but some of them would just be normal rich people. Thus, the conflict between the Lupinrangers and the Patrangers would feel more organic because it would be cops vs actual robbers instead of angry cops vs special agents. This brings me to my second point.

2. Make the Patrangers actually likable and matter to the story. The Patrangers don't really need to be in this story. They have no reason to exist here and they need one if they are going to earn their place in this story. Their robot sidekick would also be excised from the story entirely. The thing I would have them do is that whenever they run into the LupinRangers, it would always be either just as soon as they are done with a heist or as they are finishing. Let's go over an example.

The Patrangers are at a crime scene that looks more elaborate than a simple snatch and grab. Then, Keichirou, the head of the Patrangers, looks over the scene and starts to figure out what exactly happened. That the job was going fine at first, but then the Ganglers showed up and messed up the plan. There was a fight and someone got away with the Collection Piece. The rest of the episode is the Patrangers looking for the Collection Piece and at the end, the Lupinrangers get the Piece while the Patrangers defeat the Gangler. Then, Keichirou and Kairi have a moment when they exchange a look. Neither Red Ranger says anything, but the two are sizing each other up. Later, Keichirou is found by Kairi, still in his Lupinranger Guise. Keichirou admits that the Lupinrangers did help expose the original holder of the Collection Piece as a crook, but their methods are against everything he believes in. He states that he doesn't know what the Lupinrangers want with the Collection Pieces, but he will make sure to get them before they do. "It's not that I do not trust you, but I would rather see power like that safely locked away than in the hands of someone who might use it for a cheap thrill." Kairi doesn't do anything to dissuade his opinion, but simply says "In that case, let the games begin."

Basically, while the Lupinrangers and the Patrangers may come into conflict, the conflict will never be made to make either side look bad, especially the Patrangers. Sometimes, the Patrangers will be fighting or they will be doing actual police work. They would also interact more with the Lupinrangers in civilian form. Sakuya, PatGreen, would spend a lot of time with Umika as well as Tooma, while Tsukasa, PatPink, would spend time with Umika as a big sister figure and with Kairi as part of trying to get to know the person she suspects to be LupinRed while opening up herself to others outside of her work.

This brings me to the actual Patrangers themselves, starting with possibly one of the most hated Red Rangers in Power Rangers and Super Sentai History: Keichirou.

3. Fixing Keichirou as a character. Keichriou is meant to the Inspector Zenigata to Kairi's Lupin the 3rd. Except that series head writer Junko Kimura clearly missed the point of Zenigata as a character. Zenigata may have had an obsession with chasing Lupin the 3rd, but the thing is that he spent so many years chasing Lupin that he grew to know him as a person. He understood him and that whenever someone tried to frame Lupin for a crime he didn't commit, Zenigata would know that something was up. On top of that, whenever it served the greater good, Zenigata would team up with Lupin to fight a greater foe. Lupin even considered Zenigata a close and personal friend due to all the years they spent on the chase. Keichirou doesn't have that. He comes off as needlessly angry and hateful of anyone who is a criminal. It's gotten to the point where he is less a character and more of a caricature of Zenigata. I have some ideas of how I would fix him since he's not a bad character in concept and all it takes is something to really flesh out his character and make him more likable.

First off, I would expand upon Keichirou's backstory. While the show has shown what inspired him to become a cop, I feel that's not enough as it really just says that his entire personality and character is that of a stereotypical cop. What I would do is explore what in his backstory would make him hate criminals and want to see them all brought to justice.

In this new backstory, Keichirou came from a well to do family. Slightly wealthy with a moderately successful business. However, one day, two men came to Keichirou's father with a proposition. The idea would be that Keichirou's father would invest in the controlling stake of a new company in his father's line of business with potential to grow. The two men would supply the money and his father would handle the transactions. However, it would be revealed that the money would not only be counterfeit, but also tied to a money laundering scheme that had been under investigation for some time. The company's assets would be seized and Keichirou's father would go to jail since the two men did their best to stay out of the paperwork. On top of that, one of the men, a man with silver hair and a cold smile, would be revealed to have never existed in the first place, making his father's testimony of a second partner all the more suspicious. At the trial, Keichirou would spot the man with silver hair before witnessing his literal disappearance into seemingly thin air.

Keichirou, without his father's influence and his mother working hard to support him, would briefly turn into a delinquent. After an incident, Keichirou would be taken under the wing of a police officer. The cop would give Keichirou the chance to change his ways, to reform and try to better himself and work for society's benefit instead of its detriment. While he would be resistant to the idea, he would eventually take the offer and eventually become a cop, moving upwards to the Global Police.

Keichirou would also be more friendly and less standoffish. His arc, besides trying to find the man with silver hair, would be to rediscover the happy little boy he used to be. To try and find the ability to have fun again, thus his episodes would not only focus on his skills, but his past and trying to move on from his issues with criminals.

He would state to Kairi, in Lupinform, that even if the Lupins get results, the fact that they seemingly care nothing for the property of others speaks volumes about people like them. That, in a way, they are systemic of the corruption that destroyed his family. That as long as what they do benefits them, the law doesn't matter, and the consequences don't matter. "You may not think you're bad people, but I have seen what happens when people like you mess with the lives of innocent people. When you toy with their happiness just to play your games. You may not kill them, but you do subject them to fates that are sometimes worse than death. I will fight hard to make sure that people like you and the man that ruined my life are never in power again." Of course, he would eventually learn that the Lupins are truly good, but his main obsession would be to find the man with the silver hair.

His interactions with the Lupins' civilian lives would be mixed. They know who he is, but he doesn't, assuming they are just cafe workers and decent people trying to make a living. Kairi would be the one he would get closer too, eventually becoming his friend, but the later reveal of the Lupins' identities would shake him to his core and shatter his trust in them as friends.

As for the other Patrangers, I have ideas of how I would improve upon what already works about them, or expand upon their qualities. They would also have their own story arcs in addition with the Lupinrangers and Keichirou.

4. Tsukasa: The diligent investigator. Tsukasa is definitely the most well rounded and level headed of the Patrangers. She's a competent police officer and the voice of reason in terms of her place in the team. She also has an intense weakness for stuffed animals. The only main problem is that the show never truly has her call out Keichirou on his bs, preferring to let him rant and rave about the Lupins. The Tsukasa in my version would be more outspoken on Keichirou's nonsense, though in relation to his need to put work before everything else, including recreation and his health. She would be the only one in the team with a real personal life, having found a balance. However, she's also a suspicious person, finding it hard to trust anyone.

This goes back to her early days in the academy. Her mentor was revealed to be in deep with the Yakuza and was taken down in disgrace. This caused Tsukasa to become weary of anyone in authority above her, finding it hard to trust. This leads to her relationship with their new Commander, Samuel Hilltop, being an uphill battle as he is a good cop, but unknown to her. As the series would continue, her investigation of the Gangler source and the LupinRangers would involve Hilltop helping her and earning her trust.

Her investigation of the Lupinrangers would lead to her becoming closer to them. She would eventually discover Kairi's identity as a Lupinranger, but by then would have realized that they are forces for good in the same way the PatRangers are. She would decide to keep their identities secret, leading to problems with her and Keichriou down the line as he starts to lose trust in her. This is paralleled with the little brother of the team, and the new guy, Sakuya.

5. Sakuya: The wide eyed newbie. Sakuya is probably the one the Patranger narrative should have focused on the most as a point of view character. He could have easily served as an audience proxy, being our window into the world of the Global Police. However, most of the episodes have chosen to accentuate his comedic tendencies, thus making him... really annoying. This is another blow against the show since it could have done so much with him and I feel I know a way to fix that.

The first step would be to focus on what made him want to become a police officer in the first place. In my version, Sakuya would have been inspired by his uncle who used to be a patrol officer. Wanting to be like him, Sakuya became a cop and ended up being chosen for the Patranger initiative in the Global Police. However, he soon found out that the life of a cop isn't as glamorous as he thought as he messes up his paperwork and is downgraded to being the team coffee boy when they are not in the field.

He also comes under fire from the Global Police Superintendent who used to be a colleague of his Uncle. However, the Superintendent sees Sakuya as like his uncle: A nobody that will go nowhere. As it turns out, Sakuya's uncle had plenty of chances to climb the ladder due to his skills as an officer. However, he let the Superintendent take the glory for all their work together, choosing to stay a beat cop. While this confuses Sakuya, he learns that his uncle wanted to remain on the people's level, wanting to be a face of hope and caring for a public that has a hard time trusting authority. Sakuya realized that this is what he wants too. He later refutes the Superintendent's claims saying "I became an officer to be like my uncle: To protect the smiles of everyone in Japan. I will be their symbol of hope!"

Sakuya also falls for Umika, hard. While she is reluctant to get involved with what is basically their enemy, Sakuya is persistent in his courting of her, even asking her father for permission to date Umika, which he does not get. At all. However, he does become friends with Umika as the series continues.

Sakuya eventually discovers the identities of the LupinRangers, but tells Umika that he will keep their secrets. Umika wonders if this is because he wants a date, but he says no. He does, but not if it's something she's being forced to do. Eventually, when the identities of the LupinRangers are exposed, Sakuya helps Umika escape, thus putting him on the outs with the team and causing him to be labeled as an accomplice. The rest of the series would focus on the search for these two while figuring out the truth of the Ganglers and their mission on Earth.

Thus ends part one of how I would fix Lupinranger vs Patranger. Tune in next time for how I would adjust the villains and then the finale: How I would work the story over.

Thank you for reading and I hope you can join me next time.