The Various Use Of Mythology In Toku
 

We're all taught about various mythological creatures and stories when we're young. As such, it's no great surprise when tokusatsu riffs on the same thought process.

Super Sentai has predicated much of its own history by adapting various mythologies, but it took years to reach that point. Zyuranger was one of the first to really double down on real-world mythology as a primary source of inspiration.

Some mythological adaptations in any toku, be it Zyuranger or not, can rely on both obvious mythologies and more obscure creatures of legend.

For example, Dora Circe (Pudgy Pig) is a reference to The Odyssey, right down to the helmet it wears and the use of moly. Other Dora Monsters might be a little harder to peg. If Dora Guzzler is a reference to anything, I can't place it.

The purpose here is to help with identifying the obvious and the obscure. Not everyone will catch what, if anything, a monster is a reference towards. Sometimes the myth is related to the Rangers themselves and their weapons and allies and "Mecha".

This is where I pluggin in Legend Heroes right?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mUKUjY...unation.com%2F
Ok then Legend Heroes the entire show is based off the The Romance Of The Three Kingdom. To the characters to even the plot any that knows anything about them can tell that the story is basically a modern tokusatsu version of the myth.

Which after watching Legend Heroes I kind want to see more of that. Sure there plenty of toku with heroes & monsters inspired by various bits of myth & legends but never a full adaptation such as Legend Hero and would be cool to see things like the story of Medusa or Ragnorak but in Toku form

And then there are the Phantoms in Wizard…

I think this is the right place to remember this movie:https://tokuzilla.net/watch/yamato-takeru.html
Actually, I'm not sure if it's tokusatsu or Japanese fantasy. But compared to the film of the 59th "Three Treasures" on the same myth, this is clearly a more free interpretation.

One of the things that I always found fun about Kakuranger is that all of the monsters are based off of creatures from Japanese folklore. The show even had narration that explained a little bit of the story behind them.

In Godzilla Singular Point, BB references the Hindu mythologies throughout the series.

• Salunga,also known as Sharanga in the anime is named after the bow of the Hindu god Vishnu.
  
• In the first test against Salunga BB references Amrita, the elixir of immortality
  
• In the Orthogonal Diagonalizer test BB references Halahala, the poison Shiva drank that turned his skin blue.
  
• The Baghavad Gita got referenced by name along the famous verse "Now I have become Death, the destroyer of World"
  
• The Shiva consortium is named after the god Shiva.
  
• One location was named after Matarisvan, aka Agni, the god of fire.

The series also references Greek mythologies and Dante's Inferno.

Both Kakuranger and Ninninger use Yokai for all their villains, right? I remember back when it was airing people would point out episodes to compare the MOTW to their Kakuranger equivalent.

It feels worth mentioning that Kamen Rider Saber uses the Sephirot from Jewish mysiticism in the lore for its magic swords - I know someone went deeper into it a while back, and I'm not an expert on that.

I don't know, that would require something from Ninninger to have made it into my long term memory.

Oh, I forgot about that. That was incredibly deep and thought-out for a weekly toy commercial about people using plastic swords to throw CGI at each other.

Gekido is Chokhmah, Hayate is Hod, and I can’t remember the rest.

*The genjyuken from Gekiranger incorporates the Chinese zodiac
*Gaim seems to loosely have hints of mythology and religion from what I've noticed notably Norse Mythology and Christianity
*This I pointed out a while back but Kakuranger loosely adapts Journey to the West with their core team dynamic and on-the-road way of doing things
Sasuke/Ninja Red is Sun Wukong/Son Goku the monkey king which is why he has a cloning ability and his mecha are all monkeys
Tsuruhime/Ninja White is Sanzang/Sanzo the monk which is why she is technically the leader
Saizou/Ninja Blue is Sha Wuzing/Sha Gojo the water demon which is why water is his element
Seikai/Ninja Yellow is Zhu Bajie/Cho Hakkai the pig demon which us why he is the muscle of the team
Jiraiya/Ninja Black is Bai Long Ma/Hakuryuba in that he is the last to join the crew
Ninjaman is also in a sense partially based on Sun Wukong in that he was confined for ages just like Sun Wukong at one point in his life
* Dairanger's Ryuseioh is loosely modeled after Sun Wukong and Don Dragoku is based on Ryuseioh(with Torabolt being an analogy to Won Tiger)
* Ohranger is a mix bag of mythology and ancient culture as seen with some of their mecha
Oh Red's Skyphoenix is based on the phoenix
Oh Green's Grantaurus is based on the minotaur despite not being anthropomorphic(could also be a nod to the constellation Taurus)
Oh Blue's Dash Leon is based on the Sphinx
Oh Yellow's Doguu Lnder is based on the Jomon era Doguu sculptures
Oh Pink's Moa Loader is based on the Moai statue
Kingranger's King Pyramider is based on the pyramids

Two thoughts are coming to mind

1. Would Zeo and Kyu Ranger powers connected to this?

The Kyu Rangers each represent the planets in our galaxy.

2. Are the Aura powers also connected to it in some way?

Also Galaxy Man and Lost Galaxy had mentioned The Lights
Of Orion in some variant or other.

Mentioning Kyuranger reminds me of another constellation one - Kamen Rider Zeronos is based on the legend of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl, which gives him the name of his forms and Imagin (Altair, Vega, and Deneb being the relevant stars), and also explains why he has cow heads for eyes.

I've always wondered about this! Thanks for this nugget

When we got the first look at Donbrothers, I found it interesting how eclectic the character designs were until I looked more into the legend of Momotaro. I'm surprised it took them this long to incorporate that theme into a show

Can't believe I forgot to mention the big one: the pose that the majority of Ultramans use to fire their beams is based on the Christian cross.

Sailor Moon is another series dealing with
planet based powers. A fave of mine btw.

In accordance with identifying the mythology in Toku designs, I rediscovered some old videos regarding Zyuranger.

One is about Bandora and her gang.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNu95SIPIyE

https://tokusatsunetwork.com/2017/05...-bandora-gang/

Another is about some of the Dora Monsters.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMYNfbbI4EA

https://tokusatsunetwork.com/2017/05...nsters-part-1/

What's particularly interesting is the quoted sources:

- Rainbow Zoukei
- "Hyakka Ryouran": Volume 1 of 2, Sentai Monster Design Compendium.
- Super Sentai Pictorial 2006