[Sunred]

Shinkenger was a great show in that first off the casting was superb. Tori Matsuzaka, who seems like a laid-back goofball in real life as demonstrated by his appearances in Masaki Suda's ANN radio show, was a great choice at the time as the aloof leader Takeru, Hiroki Aiba was great as the overachieving but well-meaning Ryunosuke, Rin Takanashi was great as the horrible cook/big sister of the team Mako, Shogo Suzuki was great as the rebellious young man Chiaki, Suzuka Morita was great as the gentle and kind Kotoha, and Keisuke Souma was great as the comic relief/mediocre sushi chef with a gift in decyphering mystic arts into digital form Genta before he went on to be Master Logos in Saber.
Chiaki was my favorite in that he was this senior high school kid who is thrust into being a samurai and had to give up fun times with his friends to fulfill his family's destiny and wasn't completely reluctant by acknowledging that it has to be done. It was more of a "I don't like it but it has to be done, so let's do it" type of attitude. His brief rivalry with Takeru was fun to see and the whole late bloomer character angle was nice early in the show. And the transformation sequence was always cool to watch.

Oh, and let's not forget episode 1's intro.

That was excellent choreography. It was from here I knew the show was gonna be good.