Yes, yes, yes. :rock:
Liveman is worth it. Last Showa sentai, first female blue ranger, Kamen Rider Ghost's dad is in it, Joji Nakata is the big baddy, Kikaider is their mentor, first time a black ranger and green ranger were regulars together, the show that Hurricanger borrowed from, and that's about it I guess. Oh and moonwalking female robot. :lolol

Also the first animal-themed show. By the way, it just occurred to me that Alpha-5 was most likely inspired by Colon. Well, if so, then this is one of those cases where the original is better both in character and in plot.

Let's not forget Sun Vulcan. :rock:
I will agree though that Liveman was the animal team to fully commit from their suits to their mecha.

Mentioning Sun Vulcan after Alpha 5 was mentioned is funny cause I saw something years ago that suggested Rita and Zedd's relationship might have been inspired by Hedrian and Hell Saturn's "relationship" and how Hedrian would get so excited that she would bop Hell Saturn's head!

Oh yeah, Machiko Soga was in it. :lolol
God I miss Soga. She was a godsend to tokusatsu. Loved her in Spielvan.

Agreed. It's thanks to her performance in Spielban that Queen Pandora is not only one of my favorite villains in Metal Heroes, she also happens to be one of my top favorite villains in all of Toku.

And then her appearing as Magiel in Magiranger was great. A shame she left us all early. Had she lived a little longer it would've been nice to see her appear in cons with the Zyuranger cast and stuff.

If you created a ninja Sentai, would you combine ninjas with animals/yokai & fruits?

Fruit Ninja with a touch of TMNT!

If one did, hypothetically, it would be best to explore the science and history and pre-existing fiction in order to make it seem natural and predicated on a semblance of truth.

Were there known instances of ninja using fruits, be it in historical documentation or in popular fiction? Same with Youkai.

The scientific relationship between various fruits and animals most assuredly has documentation and is definitely worth exploring.

Kamen Rider Gaim combined fruits with samurai, knights, vikings and roman gladiators despite those things having little in common, I don't think it'd be any weirder or out of place for Sentai to create a fruit ninja animal team.