I need a good sentai to watch.
 

OK. So here is the deal. So far I've seen ToQger, Zyuranger and Ninninger. All of them have been ... unpleasant to say the least. I know there are decent sentai shows I would enjoy watching out there. I just have yet to see them. What are everyone's recommendations? I've seen some of Kyoryuger and that honestly was more enjoyable than anything I've seen sentai wise so far.

Try out Dairanger, Ohranger, Carranger or even Gaoranger

So basically you chose 3 of the least popular Sentai.

Good job.

Dairanger and Ohranger are also not very well regarded around the fandom.

1. Megaranger
2. Carranger
3. Shinkenger
4. Kyoryuger
5. Magiranger

You'll thank me after.

Thanks

Liveman
Jetman
Dairanger
Carranger
Megaranger
Timeranger
Hurricanger
Dekaranger
Gekiranger
Go-onger
Shinkenger
Gokaiger
Go-busters
Kyoryuger
ToQger

I'd recommend Dekaranger, Gokaiger, Jetman, Zyuranger, Dairanger, or Kakuranger. I'd also recommend avoiding Magiranger or Goseiger like the plague.

You have to watch Carranger, Megaranger and Gingaman.

Turboranger and Boukenger are pretty good as well.

Uh what? Dairanger is highly regarded and many, including myself, consider it to be one of the best.

However, SentaiLover (wait, what?), how was Zyuranger unpleasant to watch? What did you not like about it? Just curious because that will depend on whether or not you may like Dai and Kaku.

What else I recommend:

Live
Jet
Car
Mega
Ginga
GoGoV
Time
Aba
Geki
Gokai

My favorites in order have been:

1. Gokaiger
2. ToQger
3. Shinkenger
4. Go-Onger

Since you've had some somewhat bad experiences so far, I'd suggest Go-Onger since it's sort of quirky and light, yet has decent action. Shinkenger is a great balance of serious and fun, especially when Genta shows up. Oh, Genta.

Good Luck!

ToQ, Zyu, and Ninnin are all on the "lighthearted" end of the Sentai spectrum, so my approach would be to direct you to Sentai shows with a more serious tone.

Here's what I recommend (mind you, this is not my list of favorites, it's a list of the shows I think are the most tonally different from what you've already seen):

1. Shinkenger. The last 10 episodes are serious as a heart attack, and the stakes for a sentai have never felt larger. Beware, the middle of the series is pretty dull.
2. Dairanger. Edag88 is straight up wrong, this is one of the most beloved Sentai shows in fandom. It's the pinnacle of the franchise as far as action choreography goes, and it's the fastest paced Sentai I've seen. There's not a dull moment.
3. Gokaiger. The show pays homage to all of the past sentai, but the main characters are anti-fanboys (with the exception of GokaiSilver), so they approach their legacy with a less reverential tone. Would be a good place to start for someone not automatically enamored with the stock sentai tropes.
4. Go-Busters. It's nothing at all like any of the Sentai you've mentioned because it takes a more "realistic" (as far as sentai goes) approach to the franchise. This show works better if you don't have a fondness for strict sentai tropes.

You'd be good with any of the above. From what I've heard, Changeman, Timeranger, Gingaman, GoGoV, Gekiranger, and Megaranger would also be good choices for you, but I haven't seen any of them in full, so I can't confidently recommend them.

Since you hate ToQ, Zyu, and Ninnin, I doubt you'll like the following series (despite Car and Kaku being among my favorites), so probably avoid:

Carranger
Magiranger
Kakuranger
Goseiger
Go-Onger


Hope you find something you like!

Gekiranger.

Once you watch that, you'll realize why I only listed one show.

Shinkenger, Dekaranger, Gokaiger, and Gekiranger are MUST sees.

Well this is a long list of shows. I shall look over all these in due time. Of course it will take some time to see them all. Thank you all for your recommendations. All of you are awesome.

Yep that's my luck in a nutshell. Woot.

OK. Let me reword. Zyuranger wasn't like totally unpleasant to watch, but I did find it hard to watch a lot of it. To me most of the characters were not that interesting. The stuff with Geki and Burai was interesting as well as Burai's situation and Bandora was a fun villain, but most of what was going on seemed pointless. It felt like half of the show could of been cut and I've missed nothing. I'll be honest and admit I have reading issues so maybe something was missed during my viewing, but none of the characters outside Geki seemed to get any focus, there wasnt much going on and the villain didn't interact with the Zyuranger that much. I guess it comes down to I really don't enjoy lighthearted stuff that much. Sure comedy is fine every now and then and yes filler is just something we need to deal with every now and then, but hardly anything felt important. Take for example the monkey people. That had no point in the long run. I'd say it's me, but lots of people seem to join my feelings on the matter so guess it's not me.

Jetman is good but I recommend watching it in bursts.

If you saw a bit of Kyoryuger and liked it, you'd probably enjoy watching the rest. The first few episodes are a little contrived, but it quickly jettisons the worst elements of its plot, and maintains better-than-average pacing.

I'd also second Matrixbeast's recommendation of Gekiranger. I like the main cast, theme, and mecha quite a bit, but the villains may be the best part of the series. Like Kyoryuger, it's a well-paced show.

Kitties or dinosaurs: you really can't go wrong.

The thing with Sentai is that a lot of the episodes take one particular character and give them a struggle, and then make them overcome it. Most of the time characters don't really have long arcs over a series. The thing with Zyuranger is these struggles usually involve helping a little kid. That could be a reason why you thought the characters were pointless, since a lot of their stories boiled down to them helping a random kid every week. Keep in mind though that most Sentai has a lot of...well, filler. Lots of episodes involve a monster showing up and the team trying to beat the monster, without really advancing the main plot. So theoretically, you could skip a good chunk of the episodes in just about every sentai (I haven't seen them all though so I can't say that for sure) and not miss out.

Try Gekiranger and Dairanger. They're both regarded as some of the best Sentai out there and have great pacing. Maybe you'll find the plots and characters more interesting? Also, I've seen a couple people recommend megaranger...please don't try watching that one next. I found it to be pretty boring. Maybe later on you could come back to it, but right now i'd suggest either Geki or Dai. edit: Totally forgot you said you started Kyoryuger and liked it when I posted this. You could also keep going with that one.

Also, out of curiosity...if you've only seen 3 Sentai so far and weren't enamored with any of them, why did you choose SentaiLover as a username?

Yeah, Dairanger has ongoing character arcs throughout the entire series. In fact, I recommend you check out the review I did of it last week on my Youtube page. I avoided as many spoilers as I could, but I think it should be detailed enough for you to decide if it is worth your time. Sure, my review ended up being about 25 minutes long, but that is the length of an episode and a half of Dai, so if you don't feel it is a series for you afterwards, you didn't invest too much time.

As for Zyu, yes, Geki and Burai do get the biggest development, but Goushi and Mei also received it. We learn about Goushi's sister and then Mei's family history. The development is there, but it is more subtle and not in your face. At least for everyone that isn't Dan and Boi. Nevertheless, most Sentai series are really only plot for half of its show. Zyu has 28 episodes that deal with the plot while Dai is one of the exceptions with 44 episodes of it.

... Fudge. I just started watching Megaranger x.x Also to answer your question about the name. Yes I have found a lot of sentai I watched to be not enjoyable, but even so the concept itself of Sentai is something I enjoy. You could show me them transforming all day and that would make me happy, plus the music in most shows are fantastic! Especially the openings. So it maybe that I've not liked the current shows watched, but this series is over 40 years now. There has to be a series that appeals to me at some point. From what I hear Power Rangers Wild Force was very simular to Gaoranger and I liked Power Rangers Wild Force, so that is something that excites me to watch! Now that I think about that should of picked that instead of Megaranger. Anyway hope that answered your question.

Megaranger isn't that bad, it's just a little bland. For 80's Sentai, I'd recommend Liveman, for 90's either Kakuranger (For something really different) or Dairanger, for 00's Gekiranger (Like, 100% my all time favorite) while the 10's I guess...Gokaiger? It's alright.

I think you'll like Megaranger. Some people say it's generic, but since you haven't seen that many sentai shows, that might not be an issue for you.

I'm watching it now, on episode 11, and I personally don't feel like it's generic. Although it does take advantage of ALL the standard sentai tropes, I think it uses them in an new-ish way (relative to the shows that preceded it). It's also interesting to watch in context of sentai shows because at episode 8, they changed the show's timeslot from Friday evenings to Sunday mornings. The move forced the producers to extend each episode's runtime by a few minutes, which gives the stories more room to breathe and ushers in the "modern" sentai format.

I think it's a good series for you to move forward with. My vote is keep going.

Sentailover, I personally thought Megaranger was amazing. It takes a little time to start up, but it is an excellent season with a compelling, fascinating story, fantastic characters (especially Kenta, Kouichiro and Chisato)with great acting and fun cast who actually feel like real world high school students going through their problems, they don't feel immortal and feel very relatable to. The story arcs are also very interesting, and it's a journey on it's own, in terms of maturing and both the heroes and villains growing through out the story. It's an interesting blending point between old and new Sentai.

Keep on going with it. You will not regret it.

Ahead of you. I am actually on episode 3 right now. I don't see much generic stuff in it so far. Sure there isn't much plot as of yet, but as a gamer a video game grants five people super powers and they have control over things like Cell phones and television. How is that NOT exciting?! I can't wait to see how they use their powers to good use and what situations they will be in. It's like Ninninger has five ninja's who really have nothing accept color keeping them from being different. They all have magical ninja abilities that any of them can use. The villains seem like they could be interesting, but so far don't really get much from them yet. Anyway thumbs up for this.

Ahead of you. I am actually on episode 3 right now. I don't see much generic stuff in it so far. Sure there isn't much plot as of yet, but as a gamer a video game grants five people super powers and they have control over things like Cell phones and television. How is that NOT exciting?! I can't wait to see how they use their powers to good use and what situations they will be in. It's like Ninninger has five ninja's who really have nothing accept color keeping them from being different. They all have magical ninja abilities that any of them can use. The villains seem like they could be interesting, but so far don't really get much from them yet. Anyway thumbs up for this.

I'd recommend watching some first episodes and seeing which ones grab your attention the most. That's usually what I do if I'm trying to pick between shows.

My favorite sentai series would probably be Go-Buster. Like another poster said before me, the show does take a darker and more 'realistic' approach to the standard Super Sentai tropes. Here is a list of what I consider to be the pros and cons to said series:

Pros:
- A dynamic main villain who is a credible threat to the heroes. He actually learns from his losses and even manages to score some long term victories.
- Actual consequences. The heroes need to make some tough choices throughout the show. Said choices have real consequences that are not fixed with a simple Deus Ex Machina.
- The burden of being a hero is also shown, as the characters are clearly affected by having to spend their lives fighting, instead of being able to live peacefully. Especially considering their young age.
- The battle scenes in this series are also superbly done.

Neutral
- This series is known for heavily subverting many existing sentai tropes. For example: the monster of the week is not grown, like in almost every other sentai in existence, but instead a giant robot is summoned that uses certain modifications based on the monster. (IE if the monster is based on a flamethrower, the robot will have flamethrowers as arms). Also, the rangers are able to use superpowers outside of their suits, which is not what we usually see in Sentai shows. If you like more traditional sentai, this might be a turnoff to you. Otherwise, the changes are somewhat refreshing to watch.

Cons
- The heroes themselves are a little bit on the bland side. They do not have any real character development throughout the whole show.
- The heroes also have silly weaknesses that are in stark contrast to the rest of the shows darker tone. For example: the red ranger gets paralyzed in fear whenever he sees a picture or drawing of a chicken. I did not really mind this, but have heard of people who did.

Conclusion: If you want to experience a darker, more realistic and unique take on the Super Sentai genre, you should really try out this series. If you like more lighthearted and traditional Sentai series, this will probably not be for you.

There's nothing wrong with liking Megaranger, nobody has the same tastes in Sentai and I usually seem to be in the minority with not caring for it...but I just found the entire cast of lead characters annoying, the villains uninteresting except for Yugande (who even then was barely interesting) and the monster/ranger suit designs were kind of bland. The only thing I really liked about it is Galaxy Mega's design.

Keep going with Megaranger. If you like it, then great! I think it's better for people to like something than not like it, it means they're finding more things to enjoy in life. If you don't like it, then i'd re-recommend Dairanger and Gekiranger.

I think it's interesting that this is such a deviation nowadays, since Battle Fever J handled it similarly, with a small version AND a giant version of each monster.

If you want some recent ones, then Gokaiger and Kyoryuger are really good.

I don't feel like people give ToQGer enough credit. They have a pretty good plot twist, the red ranger is good, the villains are great, and it has a satisfying ending. It is overly goofy though (a turn off to some, but not to me), but it is good.

The best Sentai that I watch are

Megaranger
Gokaiger
Kyoryuger
Shinkenger
Ohranger
Kakuranger
Dairanger

The way Go-buster handled it was unique, as the monster and the giant robot did not even resemble each other. The robot only took on some traits of the monster. For example the monster Shovelroid gave some of its traits to the ShovelZord. The giant battle could also be fought the same time as the human sized battle, as the monster served as the navigation point to which the robot teleported to.

I believe Go-Buster is the only sentai to handle the giant monster trope that way, making it one of the more unique deviations.

ToQ Spoiler! ToQ Spoiler! ToQ spoilers are about to leave the station so anyone who isn't wanting to see this get off the train now!

I honestly can't say ToQger had no redeeming quality's to it. A train motif is something that hasn't been done before to my knowledge. The Sixth member ToQ Roku is pretty entertaining at points. Hikari was pretty fun especially the detective episode. Light hearted moments are OK, but to me it needs to be done sparingly in a series like this. These are guys trying to save the world and they are wasting time playing dress up to make Akira smile? Sure it was humerus I will grant, but really it just feels annoying. Yes they are kids in adult bodies, but there could of been more done with that then they did I feel. Really the only part of the show that had me interested was near the end where Right was fighting Zed/Zett (I don't know which is right I've heard both of them used.) and it felt like something was really on the line and something was getting done. Zett/Zed was an interesting villain, but in the end what was he? He was surrounded by monsterous creatures, but his design was human in nature. He had a purple sash around him at all times and it made me think he was gonna be the Purple/Violet ToQ Ranger. Which I thought would have been an interesting end if Glitter was turned bad and at the end this evil force changed to become good. It would have worked well for the character in my opinion and this would of been a great message to kids. Sometimes we lose our way, but you need to realize that you did and get back on the right path. Redeeming the towns from the Shadow Line was a good idea and why they didn't run with that is beyond me. It would of been cool to see the ToQger's use smart strategy's to fight out of their suited form and when it was needed they henshined and defeated the monster since they only had a limited time they could stay in suit. Really to me it seems ToQger just had loss potential more than anything. Plus there was stuff that was left open like that president guy or what happened to Zett/Zed? He was on a train and Glitter is just looking after him? From what I hear these are questions that were not answered in the movie (Yes I didn't see the movie. So maybe that would help my opinion, but doubtful.) and if you like ToQger great. Glad you found something in it that I clearly did not. To me it really felt like half a series with tons of filler thrown into everything.

Dairanger I'm waiting to buy on DVD. Holidays, money and all that. Gekiranger I am hearing nothing, but praise for so that is one I personally can't wait to watch. Currently I'm thinking of watching the shows in order of what was most recommended.

If I recall correctly, there was an episode of Battle Fever J where the robot fought a monster while the rest of the rangers fought another monster. I can't recall for sure though. It's not exactly the same, but it's still kind of similar.

Go-Busters sounds interesting, i'll have to give it a go one of these times. The chicken thing seems amusing too

Not a bad decision. I'm trying to grab that DVD set before I watch it (No, I haven't seen it, but based on everything i've heard about it, I feel confident in recommending it to suit your needs).


So, I've been wanting to watch a newer Sentai lately, and I think i've narrowed it down to Kyoryuger, Go-onger, Go-busters, Goseiger, Shinkenger, or Boukenger. What are the pros and cons of each? Why should I or shouldn't I watch one? Which one has the most and least amount of CGI and practical effects?

Can't say much for a few of these, but from what I know:

Boukenger:
Pros: Silly and often comedic, four villain factions at once, can get kinda deep from time to time, all of the villain designs are based on previous Sentai mecha, Super Sentai encyclopedia, ZUBAAN!
Cons: No real plot, mostly filler

Goseiger:
Pros: Light-hearted and fun, three different final combinations (in basic sense), Hyper Gosei Great's costume is light enough for it to perform splendidly, three evil factions that take the place of the previous
Cons: Characters and concept may be a tad kiddish (protecting the Earth and all that stuff)

Kyoryuger:
Pros: REALLY catchy music, tends to be funny, has some good character development, often creates new arm combinations to mix things up, evil ranger, bird mentor
Cons: Not enough Tobaspino, red only battlizer and too much red focus from what I've heard, although I can't really see it after finishing the series- guess I'm kinda within the target demographic

The villains of Bouken are based on Sentai mecha? I've never heard that before.

Yeah, if you look at Ryuuon he looks like Daizyujin, and the Ashu forms are based off Dairanger mech. There are a few more.

Anyway EpilsonX Boukenger is one of my favorite Sentai, mainly due to the treasure hunting idea and the cast, has one of the most badass Reds/Pinks/Sixths in Sentai ever, has an interesting/awesome villain dynamic, and there's a lot of other good stuff too.

From what I've seen of Goseiger it seems like a good series, I enjoyed what I saw. It can be grouped in that Zyuranger/Gingaman category of different civilization.

I'm looking it up and while you are right, I don't really see the resemblance. Hell, it says Gagadom is based on Liverobo, but I just don't see how. They look nothing alike. I also don't see any resemblance between the Questers and Dairanger mecha.

There are a few I can see where they were going for, like the one based off V-Rex, though.

The Questers have a little bit, I didn't think that until I read the article. Gagadom looks nothing like Liverobo.