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Super Sentai
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The is the name given to the long running Japanese superhero team genre of shows produced by Toei Company Ltd., Toei Agency and Bandai, and aired by TV Asahi ("Super" refers to their use of mecha, and "sentai" is the Japanese word for "task force" or, literally, "fighting squadron" and was also a term used for Japanese squadrons in WWII).
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The is the name given to the long running Japanese superhero team genre of shows produced by Toei Company Ltd., Toei Agency and Bandai, and aired by TV Asahi ("Super" refers to their use of mecha, and "sentai" is the Japanese word for "task force" or, literally, "fighting squadron" and was also a term used for Japanese squadrons in WWII). The shows are of the tokusatsu genre, featuring live action characters and colorful special effects, and are aimed mainly at children. This series is one of the most prominent tokusatsu productions in Japan, alongside the Ultra Series, the Kamen Rider Series, and the Metal Hero Series and was adapted in the United States as Power Rangers.
Series overview
In every Sentai series, the fight between good and evil is illustrated, with the good side winning most of the time. The basic premise of the series is that a group of five (in some cases fewer) people gain special powers (magical or technological), wear colored outfits, and use advanced weapons and martial arts skills to battle powerful beings from other planets and/or dimensions threatening to take over the Earth. In most of the episodes, after the team has beaten an army of evil creatures ("grunts") and the "monster of the week", they call for huge robotic vehicles/animals ("mechas") that can combine to form one giant robot to fight an enlarged version of the monster. Sentai series with the giant robot element are specifically known as Super Sentai. Each Sentai series is set in a different fictional universe, with the exception of specials that feature a teaming up with the previous Sentai.
The first Sentai series, Himitsu Sentai Goranger, was created by the late Shotaro Ishinomori, creator of Kamen Rider and Cyborg 009 in 1975. He did not create any further Sentai series after his second, J.A.K.Q. Dengekitai, was not received well. These two series were not a part of the Super Sentai series until 1994 when Toei decided to include them with the series that followed.
The third Sentai series, Battle Fever J (1979), is the first Super Sentai show (on account of it being the first to have a giant robot that the heroes pilot - the past two shows only had vehicles).
The term sentai is also occasionally used to describe shows with similar premises, such as Voltron, or even the magical girl team in Sailor Moon, as Naoko Takeuchi deliberately used Sentai ideas. In 2003, Sailor Moon was retold in a fashion somewhat similar to Sentai shows in the form of Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon. While not officially Sentai, some fans of the genre have accepted it as such.
Distribution
Although the series originated in Japan, they were imported and dubbed in several other countries. Choudenshi Bioman and Hikari Sentai Maskman were very popular in France and in the Philippines in the 1980s. Additionally, Choujuu Sentai Liveman and Kousoku Sentai Turboranger were aired in Spain and Portugal. Denshi Sentai Denziman and Dai Sentai Goggle V were aired in Italy. In Brazil, the first Super Sentai series to air was Dengeki Sentai Changeman, in 1988, and made a tremendous impact at the time, being considered a cult classic. Due to the success of Changeman, other series were imported, such as Choushinsei Flashman, Hikari Sentai Maskman and the unsuccessful Dai Sentai Goggle V. There were also plans to import newer series, but were cancelled due to reduced popularity of recent series. Various Sentai series were also broadcast in Malaysia sometime in the 1990s.
Super Sentai in the U.S.
After Honolulu, Hawaii's KIKU-TV had success with Android Kikaider (called Kikaida) and Kamen Rider V3 in the 1970s, multiple Super Sentai shows, including Himitsu Sentai Goranger and Battle Fever J, were brought to the Hawaiian market (all broadcast in Japanese with English subtitles by JN Productions). Himitsu Sentai Goranger was also broadcast on Japanese-language stations in Sacramento, San Francisco and Los Angeles, California in 1976–77. J.A.K.Q. Dengekitai was also broadcast in Los Angeles, California following Himitsu Sentai Goranger. Kagaku Sentai Dynaman was dubbed and aired as a parody on the USA Network television show Night Flight in 1987. In 1993, Haim Saban produced the first installment of the Power Rangers franchise by dubbing the action sequences from 1992's Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger and filming new footage with American actors for the story sequences. This trend has continued, with each successive Sentai show contributing the action sequences to the Power Rangers series the following year.
Super Sentai in Korea
Super Sentai has also been broadcast in South Korea dubbed from Japanese to Korean, starting as early as Choushinsei Flashman titled Earth Protector Flashman. Recently, Tooniverse, JEI-TV, CHAMP TV/ANIONE TV, and Cartoon Network Korea have broadcast Bakuryuu Sentai Abaranger, Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger, Mahou Sentai Magiranger, GoGo Sentai Boukenger and Juken Sentai Gekiranger under the titles of Power Rangers: Dino Thunder, S.P.D., Magic Force, Treasure Force and Wild Spirits, respectively.
The series of Super Sentai
Each of the series of Super Sentai has their own unique values and motifs.
- , aired from 1975-1977, was the first Sentai. The Gorangers were a super-technology spy team that fought against a secret terrorist monster force.
- aired in 1977. It featured a team of cyborgs based on a playing card motif - Jack, Ace, King and Queen. It had the first non-red leader (although he was the leader until later in the story), and it was the first Super Sentai Series to team-up with the previous Super Sentai team (J.A.K.Q. vs. Goranger), a special feature that would not repeat until Ohranger vs. Kakuranger, when it became an annual tradition.
- aired in 1979. Its members were themed around nation-states (Japan, Soviet Union, Kenya, France and the United States), the countries where its members were originally stationed. The series also featured a regular and active member, Battle Cossack, getting killed in battle. The female character, Miss America, was designed by reference in Marvel's Miss America; in addition, her male counterparts vaguely resembled Marvel's Captain America. This fact is influenced by the cooperative relation built when Marvel and Toei made the tokusatsu Spider-Man series. All other characters were original designs from Toei.
- aired in 1980. The team's powers centered around electricity. It was the first Super Sentai Series to have opaque visors, and a transforming giant robot.
- aired in 1981. It was the only series to be a sequel to the previous one. Each of the team members represented a different part of the Earth; land, sea, and air. It was also the first Super Sentai Series to feature an all-male team, and the first to have a combining robot with two units forming into one. San, the Japanese pronunciation for "sun", also means "three," since there are three Sun Vulcans (it is also in the series' second ending theme song "One [Ichi] + Two [Ni] + Three [San] Vulcans"). It was the first Super Sentai Series to have a combining robot.
- aired in 1982. The team's powers came from jewels of ancient civilizations and their weapons were based on items used in rhythmic gymnastics.
- aired in 1983. It was the first Super Sentai Series to feature heroes wearing spandex and to forgo wearing scarves. The team was a group of scientist inventors. Several episodes of this series were later dubbed into English as the comedic parody series Dynaman, which was briefly seen on the USA Network's Night Flight programming block.
- aired in 1984. The powers of the Biomen came from "Bio Particles" being passed on to new generations. It was the first Super Sentai Series to have two female members as well as the first female in yellow. The yellow female died, making Bioman the first series to feature a regular and active female member getting killed in action. The character was immediately replaced later on in the series.
- aired in 1986. Each of the different Flashmen was raised on a different planet that gave them different powers. It was the first Super Sentai Series to have a second robot.
- aired in 1987. Each Maskman used a different martial arts technique and all had a connection to a mystical "Aura Power" energy. It was the first Super Sentai Series to have a sixth team member (albeit for one episode only), and the first to have a five-piece component robot.
- aired in 1988. Its motif was that of animals (falcon, lion, dolphin, bison, and rhino). It was the first Super Sentai Series to have a female in blue, and the first to initially have three members, with two members joining later on. It was also the first to feature Black and Green as members of the core team. It was also the first series to have animal-based mecha and the first to have two giant robots combine to form one powerful robot.
- aired in 1989. It was themed around automobiles. This was the 10th anniversary series (by Toei's official count until Goranger & J.A.K.Q. were re-included) and the first to feature a reunion with previous Super Sentai teams. It was the first series to have a command base that could be combined with other giant robots to create a more powerful robot. It was also the first in which the main villains were killed in the middle of the series as well as the first to feature half-human enemies. This series also marked the first use of the word "ranger" since the original Goranger.
- aired in 1990. Each of the Fivemen was a teacher who taught a different academic subject (science, athletics, language, music, and mathematics) and fought in a different martial arts style. It was the first Super Sentai Series to feature an all-sibling team. It was also the first Super Sentai Series to hide the real enemy until near the finale. It was also the first to feature an Evil Sentai group to contend with the heroes, as well as the first Sentai to start the tradition of having the team receive a "super mode" or "power up" in which their suits transform or have attachments in order to increase their abilities.
- aired in 1991. Its motif was various birds, inspired by the anime Science Ninja Team Gatchaman. Jetman brought intense drama to the Super Sentai franchise, making it one of the more popular Super Sentai Series. It was the first series to have a third giant robot, and a female mentor. It was the first Super Sentai Series with a member apparently getting killed after the war by a random incident, and a new character introduced in a manga epilogue.
- aired in 1992. It was themed around prehistoric beasts. It was the first Super Sentai to introduce sentient mecha and feature the first regular sixth team member. It was also the first Super Sentai Series to be adapted as an installment of the American Power Rangers franchise as the first season of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. It is also the first series in which the main villains are not killed.
- aired in 1994. Its motif was the art of ninjutsu and based on five legendary ninjas, loosely based on characters from the Chinese classic Journey to the West. The series officially featured the first non-red leader. This series also saw the first multi-Super Sentai team-up; Super Sentai World, where the previous four teams joined in the action. It was also the first Super Sentai Series to have a second five-piece giant robot, as well as the first set of non-combining separate mecha.
- aired in 1995. Its team had a motif of geometric symbols and they had control of ancient mystical technology. Ohranger began the annual tradition of the VS Series: a V-Cinema release that features a team-up between the current and previous Super Sentai teams (this began with J.A.K.Q. Dengekitai vs. Goranger, but Chouriki Sentai Ohranger vs. Kakuranger was the first annual release).
- aired in 1996. Like Turboranger before it, its was themed around automobiles. It was the 20th anniversary Sentai with the helmets closely resembling those of Turboranger's except that there were two females and they fought against aliens instead of demons. This season was a parody of the Super Sentai Series while being an actual series itself, lacking the seriousness present in previous series.
- aired in 1997. As the Megarangers are originally video game characters within the Megaranger universe, the series' theme was that of electronics equipment. It was the first Super Sentai Series to have a member in silver.
- aired in 1998. The team's power was elemental and derived from benevolent "Star Beasts" that have aided mankind through the centuries. It was the first Super Sentai Series to have only one combining robot with assisting robots not driven by the original five.
- aired in 1999. The members of GoGo-V each specialized in a different type of emergency rescue service (hazardous rescue, firefighter, helicopter pilot, police officer, and paramedic). It featured the second sibling team. For the first time since Jetman, the series featured only five heroes, with additional heroes appearing in one of its V-Cinema productions.
- aired in 2000. It featured time-travelling police officers from the year 3000. It was the first Super Sentai Series to have the sixth team member's costume color the same as a regular team member (red).
- aired in 2001. The series featured powers arising from sentient beasts, of which there were one-hundred different sentient animal mecha (only twenty-two were featured in the series, with another one appearing on a drama CD, another exclusive to the series' movie, and four that only appeared in the final episode). It was the 25th anniversary Super Sentai Series, which had the honor of starting a trend for the team-up special of having the anniversary team join forces with past Super Sentai members from various teams rather than with the prior team in the V-Cinema Hyakujuu Sentai Gaoranger vs. Super Sentai. It was also the first Super Sentai Series to present multiple mecha combinations.
- aired in 2002. The series combined elements from Kakuranger and with the animals used in Liveman. The Hurricanegers, Gouraigers, and the Shurikenger were all users of ninjitsu, with the Hurricangers having the same animals as the original Livemen. The Gouraigers are the first Sentai warriors to have an insect motif and the first group to be heroes that have a different name than the title. Hurricanger is the second Super Sentai Series to start with three members and it also featured a unique mecha weapon system in which a series of semi-sentient animal-themed weapons were used.
- aired in 2003. Its motif was dinosaurs, closely resembling 1992's Zyuranger. It was the first Super Sentai Series to feature a member (Red) having an alternative form. It was also the first series to feature the first sole evil sentai warrior (White), who later became the first evil warrior to join the main heroes.
- aired in 2004. The Special Police Dekaranger are an intergalactic police force division stationed on Earth to handle extraterrestrial criminals who enter Earth illegally and wreak havoc. It was the first Super Sentai Series to have a semi-regular seventh team member, with three more Rangers who appear once each throughout the series: DekaSwan (36), DekaBright (40), and DekaGold (Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger The Movie: Full Blast Action). Deka is Japanese slang for detective.
- aired in 2005. Its theme was magic and elemental powers with a motif of mythological creatures linked to those elemental powers. It is the first Super Sentai to feature a full family fighting together, with two married couples and an all-sibling core team. It is also the first Super Sentai to have rarely used seventh and eighth team members.
- aired in 2006. Its theme was adventure and treasure hunting. It is the thirtieth anniversary of Super Sentai. At the end of each episode (Task), starting with the fourth, Boukenger had a short featurette at the end to commemorate the previous 30 years of Super Sentai entitled the 30 Sentai Encyclopedia. It was the first Super Sentai Series to be filmed and broadcast in high definition. Its anniversary V-Cinema GoGo Sentai Boukenger vs. Super Sentai had the first hero that did not belong to a previous team, but had the ability to assume the form of a previous red warrior.
- aired in 2007. Its theme was Chinese martial arts (eventually incorporating Muay Thai and karate in its additional warriors) with a wild animal motif, beginning with large cats such as the tiger, cheetah, and jaguar. The mecha of Gekiranger are unique in that they are manifestations of the Gekirangers' . It was the first Super Sentai Series where the story is not only focused on the the heroes, the Gekirangers, but also the series primary antagonists, Rio and Mele, who later evolve into anti-heroes. Gekiranger also contains the first Super Sentai team to have a new color (violet) in ten years.
- aired in 2008. It had an ecological theme with an animal and automobile motif. It was the first Super Sentai Series to have a female regular seventh warrior, having arrived in the series with the sixth. Go-onger was also the first Super Sentai Series to have its theme song single reach the top-ten of the Oricon charts at #4, after selling 22,000 records in its first week of being released. The series also featured the most mecha to combine into a single robot: twelve.
- is the title of the current series for 2009. As its title suggests, it has a samurai theme with an animal, elemental, and kanji motif for the individual Shinkengers' powers.
Colors
The color palette for Super Sentai has grown over the years, beginning with Red, Blue, Yellow, Pink, and Green in Goranger. The leader of the team is traditionally Red, although there have been some exceptions. Red and Blue are the only colors to appear in all the series.
J.A.K.Q.s Big One has a mostly white suit with multicolored accents.
Battle Fever Js Battle Cossack has an orange suit.
Maskman has the first sixth team member, X-1 Mask. However, he appears only in one episode.
Jetman also has a sixth member, Green Eagle, in a non-canon manga epilogue.
Timeranger is unique in that there are six warriors, but the sixth warrior, TimeFire, has a red-colored suit that is only distinguishable from TimeRed's suit by its black accents and jagged arrows.
Hurricaneger has the Kabuto and Kuwaga Raigers who wear suits of maroon and navy, respectively.
Dekaranger has five additional warriors, a final count of ten warriors. Both DekaBreak (who wears a white suit) and DekaMaster (who wears a primarily black suit with metallic blue accents) are regular characters. DekaSwan (wearing a primarily orange suit with white accents) and DekaBright (wearing a silver suit) are only seen for one episode each and DekaGold is exclusive to Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger The Movie: Full Blast Action where she is only seen for a split second in her suit before having her transformation disrupted by a hostile attack.
Magiranger has two additional warriors who do not fall under the basic color schemes. MagiShine wears gold armor over navy blue spandex and Wolzard Fire wears dark red armor.
Mecha
The main theme that makes a Super Sentai series are the various mecha that the teams use. The two original teams, Goranger and J.A.K.Q. solely had vehicles, which is what designated them originally as "Sentai." What originally denoted a "Sentai" from a "Super Sentai" was the use of a giant robot. The first series to have such was Battle Fever J with its Battle Fever Robo. This was followed by the first giant robot that transformed from a vehicle, Denshi Sentai Denziman and its DaiDenjin, and then by the first combining, or robot, Sun Vulcan Robo. The first time a team had a second robot occurred in Choushinsei Flashman with Flash King and Flash Titan. The first combination of two robots, or occurred in Choujuu Sentai Liveman with Live Robo and Live Boxer combining into Super Live Robo. Kousoku Sentai Turboranger featured the first transforming base robot, Turbo Builder. The first third robot was Tetraboy in Choujin Sentai Jetman alongside JetIcarus and JetGaruda. The first seven-piece combination was Ultimate DaiZyujin in Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger, a number only recently surpassed by Super DaiBouken and Ultimate DaiBouken in GoGo Sentai Boukenger, which are comprised of nine and ten mecha, respectively. This limit, too, was surpassed by the twelve-piece Engine-Oh G12 of Engine Sentai Go-onger. The first multiple combination mecha appeared in Hyakujuu Sentai Gaoranger, with all of the Power Animals being interchangeable with each other in the main combinations. Juken Sentai Gekiranger introduced the first mecha from the villain group that could combine with the heroes' robot, RinLion and RinChameleon combining with GekiTohja to form GekiRinTohja. Go-onger, in addition to having a 12-piece combination robot, introduced the first independent fourth robot, Kyoretsu-Oh.
Homages and parodies in popular culture
The Super Sentai series have been airing in Japan for the past thirty years, and have been parodied as well as emulated in various ways throughout the world. Some of the anime and video games that reference or parody are:
- Bleach
- Disgaea: Hour of Darkness (NijiRanger/Prism Rangers)
- Dragon Ball Z (the )
- Excel Saga
- Negima!: Magister Negi Magi , dubbed the "Dummy Force" in the English dub. In the second anime series, a set of shorts features turns the study group into an actual Super Sentai, complete with color-coded uniforms and role call, the latter copies that of Sun Vulcan's for three of its members with the same color. The Bakarangers were also featured in the tokusatsu adaptation MAGISTER NEGI MAGI: Mahou Sensei Negima!.
- Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars
There have also been direct parody series such as the Filipino movies Biokids and Kabayokids, the French series Bioumen, and the Japanese series .
There have been many tribute series that pay homage to the long running franchise, starting with the Japanese series created by what is now Gainax. The most recent series is the French online series Jushi Sentai France Five (now Shin Kenjushi France Five) which became so popular in Japan that anison singer Akira Kushida sang its opening theme.
Toei has also parodied their work by using it in a series of short features on various spas and onsen around Japan as . This series features tokusatsu and drama actors Takashi Hagino (Changéríon of Choukou Senshi Changéríon and Kamen Rider Ouja of Kamen Rider Ryuki) as , Kento Handa (Kamen Rider Faiz of Kamen Rider 555) as , Kengo Ohkuchi (the trapped subway worker Kazushi Mizuno in Kamen Rider 555) as , Masashi Mikami (BoukenBlue in GoGo Sentai Boukenger) as , and Kohei Murakami (Kamen Rider Kaixa in Kamen Rider 555) as .
Since 2005, the Japanese musical group Kanjani Eight have created a series of performances at their concerts where they dress in different colored outfits and call themselves .
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