Dinaranger

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Looks like the cover to a typical shonen series, right? Boy, are you in for a shock...

A Hentai Super Sentai dark parody series set in a near-future Japan. The ZOFA, a group of aggressors of ambiguous origin and motivation, have been besieging Earth for the past year, but are now losing ground as a result of the efforts of Dina, an organization specifically developed to combat the ZOFA, and the DinaRangers, a team of three female super-soldiers enhanced with microchip implants and brightly-colored spandex suits.

The leader of the ZOFA, frustrated with their recent string of defeats, entrusts the responsibility of bringing down the DinaRangers to his henchwoman Ghana, who has developed a sinister new method for converting humans to their side. By coating human females in ZOFA cells, they become latex-skinned, mind-controlled slaves, capable of transforming others through sexual intercourse. This transformation process is so effective that not even the DinaRangers are immune...

It lasted 18 chapters and two side-stories before the author abruptly cancelled the comic, citing time management problems, leaving it unfinished.

Tropes used in Dinaranger include:

• Abusive Parents: General Ghana is a sadistic woman who takes great pleasure in her job, even going so far as to have a direct part in turning her daughter into a ZOFA Soldier. But she wasn't always that way; as far as her daughter remembers, she used to be a kind and loving mother. And then in Chapter 18, it's subverted. General Ghana is just a clone; the real Saki Ayase was sealed away.
• Action Girl: Maya, the de facto leader, consistently proves herself to be a very capable fighter, up until Chapter 13, where she totally loses her mojo. At that point in time, Shiori becomes the new sole Action Girl. She hasn't fallen or given up yet, but see Arc Fatigue below.
  • Dark Action Girl: Saori gets one half-decent fight scene as a Dinaranger. She does a lot of fighting in Chapters 3 through 8, under the control of ZOFA. After that, she hardly does much of anything.
  • Faux Action Girl: Miki gets one half-decent fight scene of her own. After that, she gets her ass handed to her in Chapter 7, has two subverted moments of Badass, and never fights at all while under ZOFA's control.
• After the End: Maybe...? It's hard to be sure, but in Chapter 18, we get one panel of a rotoscoped desert, and mention of how a certain substance could restore the Earth to its former glory. If the world population and number of cities has severely dwindled, it might explain how the general public ever expected three superheroines to save them all.
• A Glass of Chianti: General Benin partakes of one at the end of Chapter 11.
• Air Vent Passageway: Played unabashedly straight in Chapter 12. Chief Kamura decides to take the ventilation shafts to get to her objective without being detected. She only gets noticed once she's outside the vent.
• Anatomically-Impossible Sex: Justified by the fact that the ZOFA cells make major changes to an infectee's biology. Whenever intercourse is shown, the parties involved are all either aliens, or humans in the late stages of infection.
• Arc Fatigue: From Chapter 12 to Chapter 18, Shiori has been fighting General Sierra nonstop, with no clear sign of an upcoming resolution -- and the comic's sudden cancellation means there never will be one, either..
• Art Evolution: This has become especially conspicuous with the release of a Chapter 2 remake. The newer version contains more detailed people and backgrounds, and fewer anatomical goofs.
• As You Know: Lieutenant Commander Okabe spends at least one-third of Chapter 18 telling Ghana all about the history of ZOFA. He even starts with "I'm sure you know this already..." He eventually does reveal a piece of information that she didn't know, but was there any point in prefacing The Reveal with a superfluous Info Dump, other than for the audience's benefit?
• Barbie Doll Anatomy: Kinda sorta. Nipples are always clearly visible, but crotches are often subject to this. In particular, if a female character is naked, but not corrupted, there won't be so much as a suggestion of genitalia; this almost seems to imply that uncorrupted women are sexless and pure.
• Being Good Sucks: In order for The Virus to be effective on the DinaRangers, the villains have to convince them of this. The reason for this trope is elaborated on in Chapter 17.
• Beware My Stinger Tail: Ghana can use her scorpion tail to tranquilize her enemies, or as a makeshift penis as part of the transformation process. It's used in the first two chapters, only to disappear after that. It appears once again in Chapter 18, though only for a few pages, and only to coerce another character into talking.
• Big Bad: The enigmatic leader of the ZOFA.
• Black and White Morality: Every member of ZOFA, every ZOFA Soldier, and every human secretly affiliated with ZOFA, is evil, plain and simple. Any characters who don't fall in the above categories are good.
• By the Power of Grayskull: “DINA CHANGE!!!”
• Cancellation: The tragic true fate of the DinaRangers; not getting corrupted into ZOFA soldiers, but getting their entire book series canned with no resolution whatsoever.
• Cannon Fodder: The beginning of Chapter 7 shows two of the villains discussing their decision to distract the DinaRangers with a scattered attack force composed entirely of ZOFA soldiers. It is implied that the DinaRangers had to kill them.
• Chromatic Arrangement: Played with. The DinaRangers are color-coded by the three primary physical pigments, and the personalities that usually correspond to these colors are shifted around.
  • DinaRed, Ayase Maya, is the unofficial leader of the DinA Rangers, but has the typical blue personality, being the most uptight and serious of the trio.
  • DinaYellow, Fujiwara Miki, has the typical red personality, being the most combat-focused and emotionally driven.
  • From what little we've seen of her, the original DinaBlue, Uchihara Saori, had the typical yellow/green personality, being more quiet and reserved than Maya and Miki.
  • The current DinaBlue, Shiori, is more outspoken and easier to provoke than her sister Saori, but shares many of the same traits that make her more befitting of the yellow/green color.
• Cliff Hanger: The final issue ends with a massive one: Maya, after being repeatedly raped and altered by the ZOFA, has finally broken. She's about to emerge from her cocoon as a new, powerful ZOFA solider. Unfortunately, thanks to monmon canceling the comic, the cliffhanger is never resolved - we never get to see what this new solider even looks like.
• Clothes Make the Maniac: Invoked by the ZOFA.
• Compressed Hair: The ZOFA uniform is so tight that it manages to take the victim's long or poofy hairstyle, and compress it so tightly against her head that she appears bald.
• Continuity Drift: A master of consistency in story events, monmon is not. Most Egregiously, for the first 11 chapters, we see that the Supreme Leader is an ugly mutant of a man. The Leader is absent for two chapters, and when he shows up again in Chapter 14, he is played by Commander Zengo Fujiwara. No one ever mentions or wonders about the abrupt and blatantly obvious change.
• The Corruption: The infection process is not unlike how Spider-Man's Venom invades its host.
• Cut Short: Thanks to monmon losing interest in continuing the story. Made all the more frustrating as it ends on a massive Cliff hanger that will never be resolved.
• Dangerous Forbidden Technique:
  • A DinaRanger's SuperMode bestows incredible strength and agility for a short time. It also temporarily immobilizes her afterward.
  • General Sierra pops a strength-enhancing pill in order to keep up with Shiori, who has just unleashed SG Mode for the first time. It's not long before she starts coughing up blood.
• Death or Glory Attack: Maya attempts a downplayed one (a Defeat or Glory Attack) in Chapter 13, where she taps into her SuperMode, knowing full well that if she fails, she will lose the fight against General Ghana, and be utterly at her mercy.
• Determinator: Really, Maya has absolutely no reason to believe that her mother is still alive, after having been taken from her by ZOFA five years ago. Yet it is her desire to rescue her mother that spurs her on for the majority of the series.
• Deus Sex Machina: Narratively speaking, the four properties that ZOFA Cells need are a) a high infection success rate and high spreadability, b) the ability to make the body harder and stronger, c) a corruptive influence that induces psychological pleasure, and d) the power to reprogram the mind to induce total obedience. At no point is sexual intercourse necessary; in fact, some scenes show people being turned into ZOFA Soldiers without it.
• Developing Doomed Characters: A case of this trope done right. The characters are actually sympathetic, and you feel bad for them when they're transformed into ZOFA soldiers and cruelly robbed of all of their characterization.
• Dressed All in Rubber: ZOFA Soldiers.
• Dutch Angle: The artist is fond of drawing scenes at conspicuously slanted angles, especially when things are going, or are about to go, south for our heroes.
• Eldritch Location: ZOFA's Supervillain Lair, as seen at the very end of Chapter 4, is suitably sinister: A sleek outer wall; giant, haphazardly cut columns, several times the height of said wall, jutting out in every direction; chunks of floating rock scattered about; a cylindrical tower that stands above it all. And all of that is set in a strange, swirling void.
• Emotion Eater: It's outright stated in Chapter 17 that the ZOFA Cells are fueled by human despair.
• Empathic Weapon: The DinaSuits are implied to be this. The heroines' compatibility with their strength-enhancing suits is determined by their emotional state. If they get sufficiently enraged, they can access a Super Mode. If they suffer emotional distress, on the other hand, their suits become weaker, and in extreme circumstances, render them unable to move.
• Evil Feels Good: As the victims of ZOFA cells will very loudly announce, repeatedly.
• Evil Is Stylish: Why do the Supreme Leader and his Generals insist on constantly giving long-winded speeches, putting them in elaborate rape-traps, and just generally dicking around instead of just chucking them into an open vat of ZOFA Cells or something? Well, in Chapter 17, we get a reason. Because ZOFA Cells are fueled by human despair, ZOFA has intentionally engineered situations to create a false sense of hope for those involved, before crushing it utterly.
• Exotic Equipment: See Beware My Stinger Tail above.
• Face Framed in Shadow: In some appearances, the Great Leader is depicted this way. In others, his face is visible. It seems to flip-flop.

• Face Heel Turn: Weaponized by the ZOFA.
• Faceless Goons: Becoming a ZOFA soldier involves being turned into one of these. The bodysuit includes a skintight covering of the face and head which leaves only the eyes exposed, and only two soldiers thus far have displayed the ability to remove it willingly (for certain values of the word "willingly").
• Fair Play Villain:
  • In Chapter 13, Ghana promises to call off the invasion of Dina Headquarters if Maya can resist the effects of the ZOFA Cells. One chapter-long session of humiliation later, when Maya still shows defiance, Ghana makes good on her promise, and leaves. Or starts to, rather; she comes back when Maya loses it and starts begging her to finish the job. But see Evil Is Stylish above.
  • In Chapter 15, the Great Leader himself traps Maya and Miki in a room together, with the stated intention of letting them go if they manage to escape.
• The Fettered: All of the DinaRangers fight for someone else. Maya fights to rescue her mother. Miki fights for the respect of her father. Saori and Shiori both fight to protect their family. These motivations are the source of their strength, as well as their emotional weak points.
• Form-Fitting Wardrobe: Both the DinaRangers and the ZOFA Soldiers have these, though the ZOFA suits take it Up to Eleven- See Orifice Invasion below.
• Four Eyes, Zero Soul: Yuzuki Aoi, and later Chief Kamura, once they become ZOFA Soldiers. Apparently, ZOFA Cells make you inhumanly strong, but they don't fix your eyesight.
• Genre Blindness: Most of the heroes' failures can be attributed to the fact that they are not aware that they are starring in a pornographic doujinshi.
• Genre Deconstruction: Of the Sentai genre.
  • Clothes Make the Superman: If you require a super suit to battle evil, the next time you lose access to your suit, you will learn the hard way that raw determination and a pistol will not make up for it. Not even close.
  • Heroic Willpower: It'll help you to resist the influence of Mind Control, but as long as the villains are keeping you on a short leash and deal with your resistance attempts as they come, it's not going to do you any good.
  • The Power of Friendship / The Power of Love: When your adversary's chief weapon is a virus that can brainwash people, your relationships can and will be used against you. You'll hold back against infected friends and family, and your impaired judgement will cause you to do risky things in order to save them, jeopardizing your mission in the process.
  • Sixth Ranger: A new recruit is going to be inexperienced and undisciplined, and as such will not provide nearly as much help against troublesome foes as a straight-up use of this trope would indicate.
• Half-Human Hybrid Fujiwara Miki turns out to be this, which leads into I Have No Daughter below.
• Hermaphrodite: From Chapter 3 onward, ZOFA soldiers can become these at will (which is a lot).
• The Hero: The red DinaRanger, Maya.
• Heroic BSOD: In Chapter 13, when a certain revelation proves to be too much to handle, DinaRed, Ayase Maya, is hit with a case of this. As a result of this emotional trauma, her suit robs her of the ability to move.
• Heroic Willpower: Deconstructed. Only those with the mental fortitude necessary can be DinaRangers, and there are only four known candidates who meet that requirement. Heroic Willpower is also the reason why it takes longer for a DinaRanger to be corrupted by ZOFA cells than most people.
• High Concept: Sentai meets Zentai in a Hentai. Snappy, no?
• Horned Humanoid: General Sierra has a giant facial horn sticking out from between her eyes, as well as another, slightly smaller horn protruding from the back of her head. She is the only ZOFA to have prominent non-human features. Though Chapter 18 reveals that the facial horn at least is just part of her mask
• Human Aliens: The ZOFA are an invading alien race, and aside from having unusual skin colors are indistinguishable from humans (with the exception of General Sierra; see above). It's even more pronounced in the black-and-white pages, where the only indication of a character's alignment is their manner of dress. (The ZOFA Generals, for instance, nearly always wear something that covers their eyes.)
• I Have No Daughter: The Commander disowns their daughter in the beginning of Chapter 15.
• Industrialized Evil The ZOFA Cells were initially developed as a means of utterly breaking the DinaRangers, after they foiled ZOFA's plans one time too many. They quickly saw the utility of their new bio-weapon, and began using it as an easy and self-sustainable method of generating obedient foot soldiers.
• The Immodest Orgasm: No Hentai would be complete without it. In this case it's Justified, as ZOFA cells are capable of pushing humans to pleasure "thousands of times greater" than a normal orgasm.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: The ability of the ZOFA to control their brainwashed soldiers hinges on erasing their personality and their memories.
• Left Hanging: Issue 18 ends on perhaps the heroes' darkest hour; Dina has been all but annihilated, thanks to its Director being a double agent. Its staff have all been raped and corrupted into ZOFA soldiers. Miki likewise has been remodeled into a Chimera ZOFA. Shiori is still fighting, but the time limit on her Super Form is about to run out. The only sliver of hope is that Maya's real mother has been found, who holds the key to defeating ZOFA once and for all - but it may already be too late, for Maya, after being endlessly violated by her brainwashed former friends and teammates, has finally succumbed to the corruption, and is about to emerge as their most powerful solider.... and then the artist abandoned the story altoghter.
• Lockdown: In Chapter 12, the Command Post at Dina undergoes one of these to protect themselves from the latest threat. Considering that Kamura escaped via air vent, the security of said lockdown is somewhat questionable. Although it's not unlikely that it was purposely designed that way...
• Loss of Identity: What happens to everyone brainwashed by ZOFA; everything they once knew is erased in exchange for loyalty to ZOFA.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: Ghana was revealed to the audience to be Maya's mother back in Chapter 2, but for some reason this was treated as a secret until Maya herself discovered this in Chapter 9.
• Made of Iron: ZOFA Soldiers are immune to physical pain.
• Mad Scientist: Every ZOFA higher-up moonlights as one. Ghana continues to develop increasingly perverse methods to instill perfect obedience in the infectees, Benin developed the ZOFA cells to corrupt humans in the first place, and Sierra created a pocket dimension filled with aphrodisiac gas and Naughty Tentacles.
• Magic Antidote: AntiZOFA (or Anti-Zofa Cells), which do Exactly What it Says on the Tin: remove ZOFA Cells and all their associated effects from an infected person. Though we never actually see it in action, it is used to cure one of the main characters. The effects seem to be instantaneous, and she is shown to have recovered both physically and mentally.
• Magic Skirt Played straight. Yes, you read that right. Despite how most of the female characters wear short(ish) skirts, the artist almost never resorts to Panty Shots.
• Memory Gambit: The Great Leader performed this on themselves to flawlessly hide among the ranks of Dina until a certain event triggered their memories to re-emerge.
• Mildly Military: Dina, being a combined civilian/military organization, is this. On several occasions, the Rangers will talk back to their commanding officers, who never seem to exercise their authority. Commander Fujiwara, however, has a reason for being such a pushover...
• Mind Manipulation:
  • Brainwashed: All the ZOFA soldiers are this, ordinary humans made into slave soldiers.
  • Brainwashed and Crazy: ZOFA soldiers are willing to attack and transform their former friends and allies.
  • Getting Smilies Painted on Your Soul: Of the 'purely sexualized' variety.
  • More Than Mind Control: While vanilla brainwashing is sufficient to turn most people into ZOFA Soldiers, when the Dina Rangers are infected by The Virus, they need to be convinced that putting their lives on the line to save the Earth isn't really all it's cracked up to be. In Chapter 8, despite Miki's best efforts to resist being turned into a ZOFA soldier, she eventually faints. At this point, an illusion of the Big Bad invades her subconscious and attacks her emotional weak points, causing her mind to crumble and allowing the ZOFA programming to take hold.
  • Not Brainwashed: After an attempt to cure her of the influence of ZOFA Cells fails, General Ghana reveals that she was working for ZOFA of her own free will all along.
• The Mole: Okabe Ryo is revealed to be this at the end of Chapter 11.
• Naughty Tentacles: Featured in the second half of Chapter 7 and the entirety of Chapter 8.
• Nepotism: Fujiwara Miki's backstory is centered around how, being the daughter of the Commander, she was promoted through the ranks of Dina, despite not being as skilled as more deserving people. This had earned her the ire of her peers. It was only after she was singled out as a Dina Ranger candidate that she was able to prove her worth to those around her. But some people, like Saejima Emika, continued to hold a grudge against her. It seems that this was an intended reaction.
• Organic Technology: The ZOFA cells.
• Orifice Invasion: But of course. When the ZOFA cells cover a human, they also enter through her ears, mouth, and various other holes.
• Orphaned Series: The artist suddenly packs it in after eighteen chapters, leaving absolutely none of its big questions or its plot threads resolved. Hell, some new plot threads were introduced in the very last issue.
• Parental Betrayal
  • Although it was revealed to the audience much earlier, in Chapter 9 Ayase Maya is devastated to find out that her mother is General Ghana.
  • A second instance occurs in Chapter 15, this time the Commander, father of Fujiwara Miki.
• Plot With Porn: Leaning towards a 50-50 split. The appeal of the series is very dependent on the porn aspect, but the plot only serves to up the Fetish Fuel and Nightmare Fuel aspects of said porn.
• Pocket Dimension: One features prominently in chapters 7 through 9.
• Rape Is Love: Invoked by the ZOFA. The process of becoming a ZOFA soldier almost always involves being infected and raped by another ZOFA soldier. The ZOFA cells infiltrate the victim's mind and brainwash her into enjoying it.
• The Resenter:
  • Emika, for the longest time, held a grudge against Miki. While Emika had to study hard to make it to her high position in Dina's command center, Miki was given a position alongside her because she was the Commander's daughter. Later, Miki was discovered to be one of the few compatible with a Dina Suit. Emika greatly resented Miki's unbelievably good fortune... until Chapter 10, where she concludes that her negative attitude caused Miki to come back incapacitated, and decides to turn over a new leaf.
  • And on the ZOFA side, Ghana resents Benin for having been selected as the Great Leader's number two. Benin was the one who engineered the ZOFA Cells, but Ghana was the one who researched and developed methods for infecting and transforming humans into ZOFA Soldiers. Ghana firmly believes that her contributions far outweigh Benin's, and feels she deserves the promotion more. It certainly doesn't help matters that Benin clearly enjoys rubbing her success in Ghana's face. The end result of all this is that Ghana puts all her time and energy into developing more and more advanced systems of brainwashing, in order to prove her worth to the Great Leader and show Benin up. This gives us a rare case of a villain in a hentai work that has motivations beyond such stock cliches as petty revenge or world domination.
• Romance Genre Heroines
  • Red DinaRanger Maya is The Crusader. This is best exemplified by her unwillingness to back down even if it means fighting her own mother.
  • Yellow DinaRanger Miki is The Boss, although Maya is the de facto leader of the group. She desperately wants to prove that she deserves her position, especially to Emika. The Great Leader turns this against her by convincing her that she's actually The Bitch, this heroine's evil counterpart.
  • The first Blue DinaRanger Saori, in much of her "posthumous" characterization, is often depicted as The Nurturer, wanting to preserve the security and happiness of her mother and sister above all else.
    • Her successor and sister Shiori is The Spunky Kid. The fact that she agrees to take Saori's place despite knowing of the danger shows her pluck, and she is shown to be sufficiently spirited when she finally goes toe-to-toe with a General and holds her ground despite her inexperience.
• Rubber Forehead Aliens: ZOFA have odd skin colors, and a scorpion-like tail in Ghana's case, but are otherwise indistinguishable from humans. In the black and white pages, a ZOFA's skin isn't even shaded differently from a human's skin. Considering Ghana's true identity, however, there might be a reason for such similarity between the two races.
• Sensual Spandex: The DinaRangers' uniforms are this. Aside from the fact that their nipples are often visible, the suits are still fairly respectably designed. Doubly so compared to what ZOFA Soldiers wear.
• Shy Blue-Haired Girl: Saori, from what little we see of her; her sister Shiori is much less so.
• Significant Green-Eyed Redhead: Maya.
• Spell My Name with an "S": The transliterated title is "dainarenja," so the proper translation of the series name should be DynaRanger, not DinaRanger. Unfortunately, the author herself translates it as DinaRanger in the title logo, so the superheroines are referred to in the translations as DinaRangers for consistency.
• Super Mode: Ayase Maya is the first DinaRanger to ever unleash SG Mode, as evidenced by mission control's reactions. Unfortunately, it also turns out to be a Dangerous Forbidden Technique (see above).
• Survivor Guilt: When Miki is brought back comatose in Chapter 10, her rival Emika feels that what happened to Miki was all her fault.
• Take Over the World: The Great Leader's goal is to take over the Earth. He doesn't seem to have any real motivation for it, though.
• Talking Is a Free Action: Played straight most of the time, but notably subverted and lampshaded by the Great Leader in Chapter 15; after he explains his evil plan to a DinaRanger, he mocks her for just standing around and listening instead of taking action.
• Techno Babble: Present in unusually high quantity for a pornographic work. Nearly the entirety of Chapters 10 and 11 are dedicated to expository dialogue explaining the technical details behind the ZOFA soldier transformation process... although you probably won't be paying attention to the stuff in Chapter 11.
• Theme Naming: The ZOFA Generals are named after equatorial African nations: Ghana, Benin, and Sierra (Leone).
• Tomato in the Mirror: In Chapter 15, Ayase Maya wakes up, seemingly human, with memories of having been recently corrupted by the ZOFA Cells. She assumes that someone must have given her the Magic Antidote at the last minute. Over the course of the chapter, she starts to realize that something's wrong with her, but she's not prepared to accept the most obvious reason... until she looks at her own reflection. She was right about being given the antidote, but it wasn't enough to actually cure her. She is still, at her core, a loyal ZOFA Soldier.
• Transformation Trinket: The bracelets that the DinaRangers wear while in civilian clothing. If one of these shatters, it's a clear sign that things are going horribly, horribly wrong.
• True Companions: In Chapter 16, Miki has a flashback to the formation of her original Nakama (back when Saori was on the team). She remembers how happy she was to be part of something greater than herself, and how being a DinaRanger saved her from being a shallow and self-absorbed shell of a person. Which makes what happens next all the more tragic.
• Twenty Minutes Into the Future: Future Japan hardly seems more technologically advanced than present-day Japan, except for the DinaRanger technology.
• Unspoken Plan Guarantee: Inverted; in Chapter 12, when the heroes draw up a plan to fend off ZOFA's invasion force, the reader is privy to all the details. As a result, it all goes wrong.
• The Virus: ZOFA cells. And it's sexually-transmitted, to boot!
• White-Haired Pretty Girl: Saejima Emika is shown to be this on the cover of Chapters 9-11. Interestingly, in the black-and-white pages of the comic, her hair is a much darker shade.
• You Gotta Have Blue Hair:Of the ten characters with confirmed hair colors, the only ones with realistic hair colors are Miki (reddish brown) and her father (dark brown).
• ZOFA Apocalypse: The apparent ultimate goal of the ZOFA is to turn all humans into mindless slaves.