I haven't had a classic Sentai in the hopper since Gekiranger. Over the weekend, i decided to pick up a double-bill of Magiranger and Hibiki. I'm a couple of episodes in, and I don't quite know what to think of the former, other than, "Hey, it's Masato Jin!" Also, WOW they're pretty ambitious, even though the special effects aren't "there," yet.

I watched "Kyoryuger 100 Years After". It was....interesting. I fond it funny that Candleira became the "Wise Deity" and Luckyuro was the "Wise Deity-in-training".

Just finished Ohranger and then watched the first ep of Carranger.

Wow, now I see what everyone has meant about Ohranger. When it was on it was great but when it was off, wow was it off. There was so much potential there which really only showed through in about half of the episodes.

I'm kinda scared to watch it. Zeo was one of my favorites as a kid, and I love all the designs in it, so I really want to, but I don't want to end up hating it because of whatever is causing these mixed reviews.

Anyways, finally finished Jetman. The ending was disappointing (especially the 3 years later part, which just felt tacked on) but the rest was good. That makes it the second sentai i've finished after Zyuranger. Any suggestions for what's next?

I also picked up a bootleg copy of Gobusters vs Kyoryuger at a con about two months ago. I enjoyed it, despite having never watched an episode of either series (or Abaranger, only Zyuranger). The CGI at the end was pretty terrible though. Still, i'm glad I got it, it makes an interesting souvenir.

I got through about 20 episodes before I finally gave up. There was nothing really wrong with it, but it just felt so...boring...

This might be a bold statement but Go-Busters had no feeling or relevance to the Super Sentai Series. I mean it did not feel or look like a Super Sentai Series at all. That's just my bold statement and opinion. Thank you

Does that make it bad though? Honestly, that kinda makes me want to watch the series. Something different

I personally don't care if a certain series in any Toku franchise breaks from its "formula". I only care if it's an actual good show, which I thought Go-Busters had.

At least we know it's not a great place to start. I started with Zyuranger, and honestly...based on what i've seen after, it seems like it really deviated from the formula. Ancient warriors, sentient god-mechs, combining your weapons into the big cannon attack, 6th ranger. Kinda made getting into the series hard because some of the elements I really liked about Zyuranger were things that they did differently that time around.

^I started with Shinkenger and worked my way backwards; so my experience was kind of like watching sentai de-evolve lol.

I have been watching three seasons at the moment; Ohranger, Gingaman, and GoGoV.

Ohranger 27 episodes in: what the fuck is wrong with that show? Some episodes are pretty on the money and are good; I stay invested and I can feel the groove that good seasons get into. Then it is usually broken up by a filler episode that makes zero sense. Like the episode that started with the gattai and red puncher dancing to limber up. I had to stop, close my computer, and come back to the episode a day later. That was the moment that almost killed sentai; let no one tell you different, lol.

Gingaman 27 episodes in: this show is entertaining. I think the little kid is a dick to his dad for no reason (and the dad tells Nossan-Style jokes and I always appreciate corny jokes), but the rangers have very defined roles and I am enjoying that comfort zone. This is obviously a Kobayashi season; implied love interest between two members on the team, red ranger that has something to prove, and character heavy plots. I am not complaining, those are actually the things I enjoy most about the show (maybe not the love story, but it is subtle).

GoGOV 3 episodes in: Just started this today and I really could marathon this season (Imagination Station has 30 episodes out as of me writing this). I like how the first henshin isn't to fight the foot soldiers, but to save lives and handle the emergency. If that keeps going for the entire season, then awesome. I love this spin on who heroes are and what they do. Don't really know the characters yet, but the third male is the wildcard (Go Green) and the fourth male is the comic relief (Go Yellow) so far. Kind of like in Go-Onger and Gingaman. I like the family dynamic so far and a flashback in episode three gives us incite on the sibling relationship. I have never had any real complaints with how the writers handle siblings in sentai and so far (with a very small view of their work here) I still feel the same.

I'm watching Carranger and Changeman right now.

Changeman is very different, as I haven't seen many Pre-Zyu sentais before(Only Jetman, and subbing Turboranger, but those are pretty good) so it is a nice change. The cast is good, and each character is different and makes it diverse. It feels really 1980's however, with the clothes they wear, and the music, but it's pretty good so far, with some good episodic plots.

Carranger, is a blast to watch. I love it, it's the right balance of comedy and action with it's tender moments. The cast is seriously awesome, I like all 5 rangers so much because they're really funny and have good chemistry. The villains are also hilarious, they don't feel like normal villains.

Also, for people who want to watch Megaranger. It's amazing. I can see why some people get bored of it, but it is awesome. The action and story is very interesting, and the characters are just awesome all around, they feel and look like High School students, and they work well off each other. It has some great story telling and does an awesome job with the High School aspect. It's by far my favorite Sentai from the eight I've watched. It's really good.

Yeah, Megaranger was really fun. It took a while to get into it, but it has a really cool cast and a pretty interesting plot overall. It's definately worth a watch!

I am also a big fan of megaranger. The rangers are great (especially Miku) and the villains are amazing.

Megaranger was pretty nice. Hilariously, my favorite character was also my least favorite ranger :p

I haven't watched a Super Sentai series yet. Does anyone have one that they would recommend me? I've been leaning towards looking at a pre-zyu series but I'm not sure which to check out.

JetMan is good.

watch in bursts.

Liveman, it is one of the best of the franchise and arguably the best Showa era and Pre-Zyu season.

Best pre-Zyu I've seen is Jetman, but that's only because it's the only pre-Zyu I've seen to completion.
I need to revisit Liveman. I keep hearing how good it is, but I got bored with it around 10 episodes in.

Just finished watching the first episodes for Liveman and Jetman, and I enjoyed both of them. I'm going to watch though Jetman first and then go though Liveman after. Thanks for the recommendations

Jetman's a personal favorite of mine, it gets a lot of hype but it is very enjoyable, an interesting combination of Japanese Soap Opera/Sentai.

I'd check out Turboranger if I were you.

I'm personally not a big fan of Jetman. The hype killed it as I was expecting more conflict between Ryu and Gai (As that's what most people praise it for), rather than the annoying love triangle between Ryu, Gai, and Kaori (With Raita occasionally thrown in).
So I was kind of let down.

The hype never really ruined it for me, as it is good, just not as good as some make it out to be. A lot of the focus characters aren't developed that well and anybody else is pretty much just set dressing, which is sad because characters like Ako and Raita were entertaining, they just needed more to them. The action is pretty decent. A real hard part aside from the characters is the story. It's alright, could've used some tightening up. The soap opera parts are handled fairly well, but the story tends to fall back on it a little too much, especially that love pentagon.

Jetman isn't bad. But it isn't the amazing show some make it out to be.

It's kind of a shame, since I loved Raita. He was hilarious. Wanting to live a simple life, but also unwilling to turn down the call to action, he was easily my favorite character. His involvement in the plot was unfortunately minimal, but he had just so much life to him.
Ako was just kind of set dressing. Poor girl. At least she was cute.

Honestly though, if they didn't put so much focus on the love quadrangle, the series would be a lot more interesting. Radiguet was hilariously insane (And I honestly really enjoyed his one episode where he had amnesia and lived as a human), Ryu's story with Maria was interesting, I liked Grey, and the kid/adult whose name escapes me right now was kind of neat. But whenever they were feeling light on the drama, rather than use one of the billion hanging fruit they could use (Ryu and Maria, Gai's brash nature putting him at ends with everyone, Ako's attempt at balancing school life with being a Jetman, fucking anything involving Raita, etc etc), they just constantly kept going back to the love [shape] with Kaori...

Tran/Tranza.

Agreed. I feel like Radiguet and the human thing could've been a very good arc if they expanded upon it more. The sub Jetman team as well could have provided some extra drama more than it did. Don't get me wrong, I like Gai, but the whole lovey lovey between Ryu, Gai, Kaori, Raita, and Maria got old fast.

I liked Liveman more than Jetman. Now don't get me wrong, Gai was awesome because he was everything you don't want in a hero and had a ton of development throughout the season, but the Liveman team felt so complete. Even when the last two were added, the team dynamic didn't take a hit.

Liveman was my favorite from the 80's, by far and I think Megaranger was my favorite from the 90's.

Damn...now I'm gonna sit here and think about my favorite from the 2000's and 2010's lol

Liveman is definitely me favorite of the 80s, Gingaman my favorite of the 90s (favorite Sentai in general as well), and Hurricanger for the 2000s.

I guess I missed something when I dropped Liveman...

It's a hard tie between Hurricaneger and Shinkenger for the best in the 2000's for me

I've only seen 2 2000's Sentai, Boukenger and Shinkenger, and Boukenger is one of my favorite Sentais. I think Shinkenger was overrated, but it was still good.

I love Jetman, but it has its share of issues. Raita and Ako are horribly underdeveloped (blue and yellow always got screwed in the development dept back then though), the monsters of the week were weak, Gai kept changing his stance as to whether he was a team member or not (sometimes 10 episodes would go by with Gai being part of the team but then he would suddenly abhor it just because), and Ryu just suddenly falls in love with Kaori the moment Maria dies.

Nevertheless, I love everything else about Jetman. The story, the choreography, the main villains, the individual episodes are fun, etc.

I love Liveman to, but I have never watched the show subbed and it isn't really in my top 10. It's more like 12 or 13 though.

My favorite Sentai from the 2000s are Geki, Aba, and Gokai, in that order.

I was just thinking yesterday that if somebody wanted to get into Sentai, i'd probably recommend Jetman. It's a good introduction to a lot of the tropes that make the show what it is. It also has good character development in both the heroes AND the villains.

The only 2000s Sentai i've seen was the first episode of Gekiranger, which was good. But for series, i've only seen 90s and 2010s stuff.

All Time Super Sentai Favorites
 

From Zyuranger to Megaranger were my all time favorites

My favorite Sentai of the 2000s is Gekiranger. It's also my favorite Sentai in the franchise.
I've never finished an 80s series, so I can't name any favorites, while my favorite 90's series is easily Kakuranger, with it's great mix of comedy, drama, and it's high action with awesome designs. Loved it.

I got 9 episodes into Kakuranger and thought it was really boring. The only parts I actually liked were seeing the different yokai each week (I looked up what they were based on) and the 60s Batman-esque BOOM and POWs. I'm sure i'll give it another try sometime and like it more though. My expectations were a bit off since I had just finished my first series, Zyuranger and basically wanted more of the same.

Watched Ninninger 21 earlier. It...was another episodes of Ninninger. I liked the focus on Star, but other than that it was just a plain episode. Also, after 2 episodes of Lion Ha-oh, i'm sick of seeing the word transcendent.

Not that much of a Jetman-Fan myself. It's not that I didn't like or enjoy it, but I just enjoyed many other shows in the franchise a lot more (and a handful much, much less).
As for favorites from each time, I'd go with Liveman for the 80's so far- but then again, I've only seen Sun Vulcan and Liveman from that time, so yeah.
For 90's Sentai, I guess I'll go with Gingaman, though Kakuranger and Megaranger are pretty close. But Gingaman was a typical Kobayashi show AND had a fantasy theme so that sure makes it an obvious choice.
As for the 2000's, Abaranger would be my Sentai of choice, though I liked most shows from that time a lot (except for Boukenger).
My favorite from the 2010's aka now is Goseiger, the one that started this decade, because it's my favorite Sentai after all. But so far, there was no show in that time I didn't enjoy so... Go 2010's Sentai!

Saw the second episode for Jetman. It was a decent episode with some pacing issues. It was cool seeing Ryu fight a giant monster outside of a mech. Another thing about the group fight, did Gai really grab that mook's privates?

like I said, Jetman is better in bursts.

and yeah, Gai does a lot of things that are nuts. Gai doesn't need to play fair.

Technically Goseiger ended the decade since a decade is 1-10, not 0-9. There was no year 0. As such, Gokaiger kick started the new decade.

Well, I think it's really a matter of how you calculate as it was still airing in the first months of 2011. So you could count those seasons from the 0 year to both of decades, depending on how you define it...
However, the rest of the argument still stands as it was referring to the following seasons so yeah. I don't think it was that important to correct me there.

I don't know...the 90's are considered to be 1990 through 1999, 80's are 1980 through 1989, and so on and so forth. So the 2000's are 2000 through 2009. Those are all still ten year blocks of time or decades. It doesn't make sense to say that 2000 is part of the 90's.