This might seem coincidental given the recent release of Top Gun Maverick, but a thought occurs: did Ohranger take numerous cues from Top Gun OG (especially within the first couple of episodes)? Ohranger definitely comes across as a military show and it makes me wonder if Top Gun OG was popular in Japan back in the day!

I can't speak for Ohranger specifically, but Top Gun was indeed super popular in Japan when it eventually premiered a year after the USA release.

Ohranger I believe was specifically made militaristic as a homage to Goranger for the anniversary (The Boukengers working for a government agency was also for this reason). I could see Top Gun bringing it to mind though

I thought the Boukenger SGS (or is it SRGS?) was specifically mentioned to be a non-governmental agency! They definitely have help and there is a sense that the head honcho is ancient, but it makes more sense for them to be operationally unaffiliated with the government in a direct sense (as government agents might want to use and abuse Precious, which is what the Boukenger agency is trying to prevent).

Has Sempaiger been subbed by anyone?

What exactly was Ishinomori thinking with Gorenger?

I know the gist of it. Basically, the old line is "It's like Kamen Rider, but there are five of them". Kamen Rider Stronger was the final product, born from the inability or unwillingness to commit to the "five heroes" concept with Kamen Rider itself. Go-Riders would be the ultimate realization of the original concept, though it's rough and only really duplicates the surface aesthetics.

When you get to Gorenger, the true realization of the "five heroes" concept, you are left with something unique in itself. Whether it was intended to become the franchise it has isn't anything I can speak to with certainty, but the use of the term "Sentai" ultimately became the basis of the franchise regardless of original intent.

There are some things that concern me.

The use of "Sentai", which was also used during Japan's militaristic past.

"Himitsu Sentai" can be translated, a little roughly, as "Secret Squadron" which echoes the franchise initials, but something else entirely. I'll let you figure out what I'm thinking, though it's probably just coincidence and not intentional given who made the thing. I'll come back to this.

I also have concerns as to why the acronym for the "defense group" in Gorenger is EAGLE! The bird is popular iconography in America, but also has seriously negative connotations given it's historical uses. No offense to the actual bird.

It's not hard to see where my "concerns" are leading towards. I truly don't believe that any of this is intentional as Ishinomori wasn't that "type"! Kamen Rider was specifically envisioned against that kind of thing. Shocker used the eagle as it's logo as a specific tie-in to Nazism. If anything, Ishinomori may have tried to use such details and iconography and turned then on their head to create something positive.

I must be getting old to worry about such things!

I think this is the answer. It can be assumed that Goriders were originally intended to be the pinnacle of the Kamen Rider franchise. That is, if initially we had a lone hero, saved by chance and fighting against a powerful secret evil organization, now we get a secret good organization, finishing off the remnants of the Shocker and all its imitators.
Or maybe there was someone with militaristic views in Toei himself, who tweaked the Ishinomori concept to suit his taste.

I've liked every series to date since Zyu which has been a non stop hot streak for me. There are weak moments but it has plenty to avoid it being a wipe out to the point of skip it and wait for the next one. This is due to Shout Factory bringing them over. My reaction has been "Bring on the next one." Hopefully this continues with Deka.

I've been watching the Shout sets.

That’s not a question, that’s a statement.

So is that :p :lol

I'm watching Hurri. When does Samurai Green Ranger come in? Also will time travel be involved when Samurai Green gets his amulet? Cam met his mom to get his in Ninja Storm so I was curious. I'm on 19 The Punch And The Rival.

Aba

In November I start Aba. Does Drago White stay bad for all of Aba or will he become good?

Shurikenger isn't a Samurai in Hurricanger! He also isn't a typical Ranger, nor is there any real time travel involved with his debut like with Cam's!

Super Sentai does one thing. Power Rangers will tend to do something similar, but usually it's distinctly different.

Thanks. In Aba is Drago Ranger full on evil start to finish?

He becomes good at the very end.

Abaranger didn't do the White Ranger Clone thing that Dino Thunder did! That was a pragmatic change so Trent could turn to good much sooner while still staying somewhat true to the footage by using some of the AbareKiller VS. The Team fights, especially when it came to Zord Battles.

This does help big time. With the white Ranger thing sorted has there ever been a Ranger in any of the 46 series that was evil start to finish out of curiosity?

There have been, but most have been movie exclusives (Kyoryuger's Deathryuger for instance), or toe the line between being a ranger and being a monster to begin with (Megaranger's Nezirangers)

I'll be watching Five Man in a few days VIA Shout Factory DVD. Having seen Episode 01 I'm confused about something -

What turns out to seemingly be a bad series actually does a 180 and turns out to be a strong series. Five Man isn't the first case. Five Man actually looks like it could be good.

I do have my curiosity about Jet Man which I'll also see in January. I can see why Power Rangers skipped Jet Man after watching the first five minutes. But over all Jet Man may be worth seeing anyways.

I've heard good things about Jetman so maybe give it a go.

Things are getting interesting.

You Tube has episodes pre Five Man up so in the interm I'll be streaming all pre Five Man episodes there till Shout Factory brings them to the USA.

Deka is locked in for February so having gotten both Aba and Deka I wonder if Turbo Ranger might be next out of curiosity. I hope Shout isn't dropping them down the line to catch up.

They still have 13 Pre Zyus to bring over so I hope they swap back and forth. That would give us 15 years of Ranger stuff to watch pre Zyu.

Deka is now the 15th brought over by Shout. Only 2 have been Pre Zyu. It would be fun to dip into the shows Pre Zyu.

Do you think we'll ever get another parody Sentai? Especially a mainline one, like Carranger?

Probably a couple of old questions, but...

Why was the Kakuranger Announcer (mostly) retired after the Tsubasamaru debut and Shinobi Scroll Quest?

Why were the Juushou Fighters also (mostly) retired around the same time?

They didn't define it as one or anything, but I feel like if you were to create a 'parody Sentai' in the modern day it would look a lot like Donbrothers

Wasn’t Zenkaiger kind of a parody series? Anyway a pretty good candidate for a future parody series happening could be on an anniversary show.

Plus as Japan, uh, runs out of kids, they might have to start changing sentai a little bit and cater a bit more to older or lapsed fans more familiar with the tropes. Perfect breeding ground for a parody series right there.

I would say Donbrothers is a deconstruction of a Sentai series. They took all the stuff you would expect to see in a Sentai and just did not do it, or delayed doing it. I guess that’s kind of like a parody though?

Zenkaiger is more of a comedy, while Donbrothers is more of a deconstruction, like you said. A parody is when they do what is in the original, but at the same time show why it is stupid. For example: "Why can't you use an army of rangers and do you really need a giant robot to fight a giant monster?". Or you can make fun of something else, but in the form of a show about Sentai. For example, for Sentai to fight unfair employers and high taxes in the style of Don Quixote.

No one is going to mention Akibaranger?

I would never forget Akibaranger! It?s the number one sentai in my heart. I just took the part where the questioner asked about a mainline sentai parody series to mean an Akibaranger-style show would not count.

But seriously, why have we not gotten an akibaranger anniversary show? Maybe it would be funnier if they were to celebrate a non-0 or 5 anniversary. Like, Akibaranger 12 years later or something. Maybe that?s what they are doing, and that?s why we did not get an anniversary movie last year or the year before?! Please let me enjoy my delusions!

I think they've decided to go all-in and are preparing Akibarenger 69 Years Later for 2081.

I guess it's my fault for not being explicit. As far as I know, the only parody seasons of Sentai are Carranger and Akibaranger, with one being a main series entry and the other being a spin-off, respectively. That's where I was building my post from.

Oh, Donbrothers is a Parody? I hardly ever follow shows as they air so I haven't seen it yet.

Yeah, that's what I was going for.

I feel Zenkaiger is a parody of Sentai. It takes numerous common tropes and adds either a commentary on it, or places a twist on things.
It plays some things straight, but I feel at the end of the day, Zenkaiger was a parody series of the franchise.

Donbrothers doesn't seem like a parody, but more a J-Drama fitting into the shape of a Sentai show? It's too divorced from the usual idea of a Sentai show to explicitly be parodying one, I think.

Man, sounds like I need to do some serious Sentai catch-up. I typically don't watch Sentai as it airs and usually fall off pretty quickly when I do, so I haven't seen the most recent ones. But I really appreciated how LuPat changed up the formula, so if Zenkaiger and Donbrothers are anything like that, chances are I'll love them.

I guess LuPat is sort of a controversial series? I see a lot of mixed reactions to it, but I thought it was fantastic.

In my opinion, LuPat was much better than Zenkaiger, which I fell off of at around the mid 20s. But Donbrothers, that ranks supreme. I don’t want to hype it up too much though. Donbrothers is also a bit of controversial show too, it looks like, haha.

I think Lupinranger was pretty well received overall. People just had issues with how Toei kind of forgot the "vs. Patranger" part.

Did they though? I thought the arc of the two teams was well-handled and made sense.

I am really curious, why Toei didn't make an ultimate upgrade for Kiramaizin?

I think Kiramaizin is the first Sentai giant robo since MagiKing who didn't have ultimate upgrade.

https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/po...Kiramaizin.png

People don't like that thieves had more toys. But that's the way it should be.

Lupinrangers were cool guys. They always got to look cool

Patrangers were butt of the joke or lame guys. If something goofy was gonna happen, it was gonna happen to them, like 99% of the time. Also Patrens, just kind of did not really know what was going on most of the time. If someone was gonna look silly or stupid, it was most likely gonna be the patrens with very few exceptions.

I think you are correct about the toys. I think some of the complaints I saw were that patrens did not get power ups or focus like the Lupins did.

So, yeah, if you were watching the show wanting to root for the Patrens for some reason, there would be a lot to frustrate you. I guess the same goes for people wanting to see equal focus on both teams.

I have seen people say Donbrothers is like Lupat done right, so that’s something for ya. I can understand what they meant by that too.

Edit: I THOUGHT THE SHOW WAS PERFECT THOUGH! i was just trying to summarize the complaints I saw.

LuPat seems really hit or miss. It won an award in Japan for storytelling, and seems to do reasonably well popularity-wise, but people who don't like it 'really' don't like it. I'm one of the latter unfortunately, for reasons beyond just "Pats don't get enough screentime", but yeah, that does factor into it.

Okay, I guess yeah I can see the uneven balance. But that doesn't stop me from enjoying it. As it is, it was a breath of fresh air full of characters that I enjoyed watching and a story that I found myself invested in. And I promise I don't mean this as a dig but I can't think of another way to word it...Sentai isn't exactly high art, so I try to keep my expectations in check.