[TokuKnight89]

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!