How I would fix Lupinranger vs Patranger Part 3: The Story

Welcome back to my final part of how I would fix Lupinranger vs Patranger. This time we talk about an overarching story for the series that has more of a presence than the monster of the week formula it currently has now.

Before I begin, let's talk about the current story that is happening in the show. As stated in previous parts, the series is about the two Sentai teams going against a group of monsters called The Interdimensional Crime Group Gangler. The Ganglers have stolen a myriad of items from the collection of the Gentleman Thief Arsene Lupin that give them special abilities in addition to their current ones. One of the Ganglers, Zamigo, has killed loved ones of the Lupinrangers and the Lupinrangers are fighting the Ganglers to retrieve the Collection Pieces in order to use the power to wish for their loved ones to be revived. The Patrangers are fighting the Ganglers to keep the peace while clashing with the Lupinrangers. In addition to the main teams, there is the Sixth Ranger Noel Takao who is a servant to the Lupin Family and the designer of the technology the teams use, having modified some of the Collection Pieces for use by the heroes. On paper, this story should work. It has the possibility of the teams not only clashing, but that they may also work together.

The main problem with this show is that they don't utilize the premise they have and instead resort to the cliches of most Sentai shows. For example, we've had episodes where some of the Lupinrangers become kids, one where Keichirou loses his memory of being a Patranger, and even a gender flip episode. Sure, someone may find the latter funny, but they distract from the main story. In the 30 plus episodes me and my roommates watched before we dropped the show, a grand majority of them felt like filler stories that didn't really add much to the main narrative. It also felt like the only characters to make any sort of progress or growth were the Lupinrangers, them clearly being the creator favorites (them even getting a majority of the new mecha while the Patrangers haven't gotten many new upgrades), while the Patrangers are mainly comic relief and feel like an excuse to poke fun at the cops. The series feels unbalanced and the story non-existent. Sure, it may have picked up since we dropped the show, but if it couldn't keep me invested enough to stay, I don't feel it's worth going back to.

I talked about what I would do for the story in my previous posts, but I will reiterate just in case. The main story would focus on a balanced series of character arcs for the Lupinrangers and Patrangers. They would be in conflict at first, but slowly they would come to trust one another while in costume and become closer out of costume. Keichirou and Kairi, the two Red Rangers, would have the most development with Keichirou learning to be more loose in terms of how he deals with life and Kairi would become more trusting of others outside of the inner circle of the Lupinrangers.

The other Lupinrangers and Patrangers would have their own arcs with Noel being the only one to really remain the same since I feel he was the best character in terms of attitude and motivation. The only thing I would change is that he would be revealed to be a distant descendant of the original Gentleman Thief, though if people think that's a bad idea, I can get why. Tsukasa would still be the levelheaded one of the Patrangers, having the most balance between her personal life and professional life, while Sakuya would still remain the little brother of the team, learning to be a true hero as both a cop and a Patranger.

Of the Lupinrangers, Tooma's arc would be learning to deal with his fiancee's passing, going through the five stages of grief during the series, moving on with his life by the end of the series and making peace with what happened. Umika's arc would be as the heart of the team while making peace with her mother, who would be revealed to have left her and her father after being revealed as a cat burglar. She would also have a developing relationship with Sakuya which would come to a head by the end of the series.

The main story would be the two teams learning more about the collection pieces and the Ganglers themselves with Keichirou also searching for a criminal that was responsible for framing his father for embezzlement and ruining his family financially. Eventually, after Sakuya is revealed to have known who Umika was as a Lupinranger and have gone on the run, it would be revealed that the Ganglers have been in our dimension for years with Zamigo, the first human to have been turned by Dogranio, having been the one to ruin Keichirou's family for a Collection Piece that had been in their possession. Zamigo is revealed to have been amassing dozens of Collection Pieces as part of a plan to take down Dogranio and become the leader of the Ganglers, having no desire to take down Dogranio's rivals and wanting to take over Earth. He would also be revealed as the Lupinranger Butler Kogure, having been hiding in plain sight for the entire series.

Dogranio would be the penultimate villain of the series, being taken down by the two teams after Keichirou and Tsukasa forgive Sakuya for withholding information about the Lupinrangers. This fight would be the final step in the two teams fully coming together, accepting each other as allies and friends, fully burying the hatchet. However, after Dogranio's defeat, Goche swears loyalty to Zamigo and prepares to experiment on him to fully integrate his Pieces into his body without the use of a body safe.

During the final battle, Goche would be destroyed, but in the process, Sakuya would sacrifice himself to save the teams, going out as a hero. After Zamigo's final defeat and the rest of the Collection Pieces recovered, the wish that would have resurrected the loved ones of the Lupinrangers is revealed to be limited to one specific range. They can bring people back to life, but only one person can come back. The teams decide to be less specific so that everyone can live and wish for "A Happy Ending" that ends with the Lupinranger's loved ones coming back and Sakuya being one of them as well. The series ends with the teams working together, though with Kairi and Keichirou arguing over who the actual leader is, Sakuya and Umika as a couple, Tooma getting married, and Tsukasa becoming head of the Japan Division of the Global Police, succeeding their mentor Commander Hilltop.

While this may not be to everyone's liking, especially those who already like the series, I feel this would be an improvement over what we have now. When I heard about LuPat, I was excited. It felt like this would be the Sentai series that could be as good as Gokaiger was. A series with a premise that had potential for growth with a team up that hadn't really been done before. However, I was disappointed by the fact that it didn't use the premise to its full potential. While episodes were improving before we dropped it, it was too little too late. Character development that should have been happening near the beginning of the series was finally occurring and while it was welcome, it didn't really make me want to watch it. I don't hate Lupinranger vs Patranger. However, I am disappointed in it and I feel that's worse. A series with potential that doesn't live up to it is worse than one that didn't have potential. It's not bad, but I feel that it could have been better. Unlike Kyuranger, it didn't start as immediately terrible, but I will probably not be returning to it.

It also lost me because it portrays police officers as a joke. Look, I'm an American and I am fully aware that the bad reputation cops have is deserved, with racial profiling not having been eliminated thanks to Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech. However, Japan doesn't have that same problem. I get that the Gentleman Thief has been a big thing in Japan due to the popularity of Lupin the 3rd, but this series shouldn't have to be Lupin the 3rd. The last toku series that really portrayed the cops in a positive light was Kamen Rider Drive, which I recommend. In that, the main character was an officer of the law that was dedicated to protecting the innocent. I don't see any reason why LuPat couldn't have the same characterization. Sure, Super Sentai's age demographic is younger than Kamen Rider, but we've had Sentai Series like Jetman that dealt with mature themes and even ended with one of the main characters dying and STAYING DEAD. LuPat could have been more, but as it is, it's just disappointing.

I would like to thank those that read these articles and would like to ask: What do you think of LuPat? Would you change anything or would you keep it as is? Let me know in the comments section.