Other than LuPat:
- Kyuranger switched things up with a big roster, and it plays into who gets featured as well as they do draws to pick who gets to fight for the episode. It is Toei's attempt at Star Wars episodes 4 to 6 and just with those traits alone it is different.
- Jetman is basically a early 90s Japanese soap opera(or trendy drama as it is considered in Japan) akin to Tokyo Love Story but disguised as a sentai show complete with love triangles and all.
- Kakuranger is pretty much Toei's version of Journey To The West but with ninjas instead of a monkey, pig, sea creature, and a monk. They are always on the move like the A Team with their cat van. And they go really grunge rock on the fashion, because it's 1994.
- Gekiranger is a straight-up old school Kung Fu epic in terms of its narrative and pacing, and their suits are a nice homage to Bruce Lee's iconic yellow tracksuit making them the first sentai with no belts(sans Geki Chopper who is in full karate gi).

Go-Busters is a lot more serialised and actually does interesting things with the giant robot fights; finding multiple ways to build tension and dramatic moments

First to film outside instead of a confined indoors set for the big robot battles I remember was one of the big sales pitch.

This is a really, really tough question because even when parts of the format change, a lot of Sentai is pretty consistently "Sentai."

Dekaranger takes a more police procedural approach to Sentai, and it doesn't have a main big bad until very late in the game. It's pretty unique.

Kyuranger splits its massive team into semi-random workgroups to fight monsters/go on missions, which definitely separates it from the "normal" Sentai format.

Go-Busters starts off as a dramatic shakeup to the tone of Sentai, focusing on more real-world scifi concepts and Kamen Rider-style serialization, before becoming a Showa-era throwback about half-way through. That may sound like a criticism, but seeing the militaristic elements of Showa Sentai approached in the modern day actually makes it feel pretty unusual.

Dairanger is unique due to its heavy serialization. I don't think there's another Sentai quite as serialized, from beginning to end, as Dairanger.

Jetman and Timeranger both start out as fairly standard Sentai series before evolving into thinly-veiled J-Dramas roughly 20-25 episodes into each series. They're also tonally distinct from each other becausevthe J-Dramas they reference, from the late-80s and late-90s respectively, are totally different beasts.

I want to put Boukenger on this list as well, due to its emphasis on treasure hunting as opposed to monster-fighting, and its multiple villain organizations, but I haven't finished it yet, so I can't say it doesn't revert to standard Sentai fare as it goes on.

Obviously, Gokaiger isn't like any Sentai before or after it, for obvious reasons.

Yeah, and just for arguments sake I would also add that you can't necessarily judge how ''generic'' a sentai is by the makeup of the team, like for example even though Kyoryuger had unusual colours it did make a deal of being a lot like a ''traditional'' sentai, and on the flip side Shinkenger looks like a standard kind of team with a red-blue-green-yellow-pink combo, but actually ends up doing a fair amount of different things by the end!

Wow, everybody is making some great suggestions, and now I know what to focus on. I do love Sentai, but I get tired of the same format every season.

Of course they'll all have the core elements that make Sentai what it is - if I didn't want that, I'd watch a different series. But each season of Kamen Rider feels a bit more distinct from each other than Sentai does, so I was trying to figure out which Sentai seasons were the most unique.

Your list is very, very good. Those all sound like the types of qualities that I was searching for. I think Dairanger is next on my list - I love the Chinese influence, I love the Power Rangers nostalgia, and now (thanks to you) I'm excited about the more serialized storytelling.

I've heard that Gekiranger is pretty Wuxia-influenced, which makes me want to watch it. I think I'm going to go Dairanger first though - the Chinese influence is one of my main draws to Dairanger, but I have a feeling Gekiranger might set the bar too high and I'll end up disappointed lol.

Actually, I had Kyuranger and Gekiranger in mind when I asked this question, so you nailed it.

No problemo. Think of it this way, Gekiranger is classic Shaw Brothers and Dairanger is more of the 80s and 90s Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, Yuen Biao type of comedic Kung Fu for a lack of better comparison. If you know any Shaw Brothers geeks recommend Gekiranger to them because two words; Five Venoms. Never have I thought I would live the day to see a Sunday morning superhero show pay tribute to that movie. Also another great feat they pulled off is there are 7 supporting characters in the show, and what is special about them are they are all voiced by people who do the Japanese dub of certain big name Kung Fu actors and actresses such as Jackie Chan, Jet Li, and Michelle Yeoh to name a few.

That sounds awesome. Considering that Encounters of the Spooky Kind and Police Story are two of my favorite martial arts films, I'm thinking Dairanger might be more up my alley...but I'm definitely going to be watching both at some point.

The great thing about Dairanger is how it mixes multiple martial arts subgenres into one show. Yeah, it has that comedy Jackie Chan element with a couple of its story arcs. Other storylines more closely resemble Japanese martial arts movies. Some take a cue from Hong Kong/Chow Yung Fat action movies. And some do actually have a Wuxia vibe.

Gekiranger, while also really good, is much more firmly influenced by Shaw Bros movies. That said, structurally, I think Gekiranger is more of a "standard" Sentai than Dairanger is. That's not a knock on Geki at all, though, I still think it's a top-tier series.

Can anyone tell me why Muteki Shogun/Shogun Megazord's sword is a fish breathing a fire?