Super Sentai Series

[AlbertV]

Hey everyone,

As most of you may know, Japan's Super Sentai Series has been the foundation for well, let's face it, The Power Ranger series since its inception in 1993 when "Zyuranger" became "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.

I actually got to see the actual Japanese series of some of these and found it to be much better than their Americanized versions. Here are two of my favorites:

1994's Ninja Sentai Kakuranger - Kane Kosugi appears in the series as the Black Ninja Ranger, Japanese-American ninja Jiraiya. In a highlight episode, he takes on real dad Sho Kosugi. Kane's Ranger double was Tsutomu Kitagawa, who is perhaps best known for playing Godzilla from 1999-2004. The American version would be Mighty Morphin Alien Rangers, when the Power Rangers were under a spell and became kids and their friends from another planet became the Rangers.

2007's Jyuken Sentai Gekiranger - Chinese kung fu becomes the art of the Rangers in the latest adaptation of the Super Sentai. There's GekiRed (Tiger Fist), GekiBlue (Jaguar Fist), and GekiYellow (Cheetah Fist). They added two more Rangers, GekiViolet (Wolf Fist) and GekiChopper (Rhino Fist). Those who watch Jetix will know that this is the new Power Rangers: Jungle Fury.

Just for the record, both have kick ass theme songs..the Japanese versions IMO. :)

[venoms5]

The USA Network used to show the original version of what became POWER RANGERS under the name of DYNA MAN back in the mid to late 80s. The main villain wasn't that Japanese woman with the huge scepter. She was on there but I seem to remember a guy in some kind of Darth Vader style samurai outfit with silver and red striped paint on his face. The dubbing was retarded on this. Did anyone else catch this version of the show?

[Bravery]

I remember watching the show on USA's flight night. DynaRed, DynaBlue, DynaPink were some of the colors but I don't remember the other colors. Awesome show.

[venoms5]

I couldn't remember if it was Night Flight or not, but they used to also have a show that aired kung fu movies, not the entire film but an hour of it(at least that's how I remember it). It was something called Mike's Take Out Theater(?) Do you remember that on Night Flight, too, Bravery?

[The Running Man]

The USA Network used to show the original version of what became POWER RANGERS under the name of DYNA MAN back in the mid to late 80s.

That was a totally different Sentai show. The one that was used for Power Rangers was Zyu Ranger. What the show on USA did years earlier was just dub Dynaman as a joke.

Back in the first seasons of the Power Rangers show, the Japanese versions were easily better. But ever since Koichi Sakamoto and Alpha Stunts came on board the gap between the two was closing in together. Now in the last few years, most of the Power Ranger versions are superior to the Japanese ones .

[venoms5]

Yes, it was dubbed as a joke but some of the same creatures and that same Japanese woman with the scepter was on there. There were no American inserts here. The POWER RANGERS show was sometimes made up of different sentai shows. You probably know the names, I don't remember them but another friend who is heavy into this stuff told me what they were.

[Bravery]

I couldn't remember if it was Night Flight or not, but they used to also have a show that aired kung fu movies, not the entire film but an hour of it(at least that's how I remember it). It was something called Mike's Take Out Theater(?) Do you remember that on Night Flight, too, Bravery?


I remember it was more or less a show where they would talk about the the movie, and thats why the movie would never finish. It would show a lot of different types of movies.

And, you were right about the Power Rangers being based on a lot of different Sentai shows, and DynaMan was one of them. The dubbing on the show may have been a joke, but Power Rangers did recycle some of DynaMan's characters.

[AlbertV]

Actually, is memory serves me correct, Dynaman was actually the name of the Japanese series as well. So maybe they just dubbed the dialogue, when TNT actually played ULTRA 7 years ago at 7am every Sunday morning.

[Robotech_Master]

It's a funny thing—there didn't used to be any way to see the truly original versions of the Super Sentai or Kamen Rider series over here, because they didn't have the popularity of anime. Nobody was interested in fansubbing or tape distributing. But that's changed with the rise of digital fansubbing and BitTorrent; it suddenly took a lot less effort to get the shows circulating. So now they're out there and available to people with an interest in watching them. I'm not sure what the forum's policy is regarding linking to fansub sites, so I'll just play it safe and say you can find it via Google if you're interested. Certainly it's doubtful that they'll ever be commercially distributed over here in their original form.

It's interesting, the changes that the American Power Rangers series has gone through over the years; they went from having the same cast who just changed costumes to using an entirely new cast every year—and they went from using leftovers from old Japanese shows to actually producing the two series in partnership so they could use the same props and sets and locations and save on costs. (Kind of like how the American and Spanish versions of <i>Dracula</i> were shot in the same studios with the same sets, one during the day and the other during the night.) That's why, now, the Super Sentai show you see in Japan one year is the American show the next year.

[AlbertV]

I have to admit, I am getting heavily into Power Rangers: Jungle Fury. As are my kids, who are only toddlers mind you, but they will sit there and they seem to get into the nice action scenes. My daughter of course likes the Yellow Cheetah Ranger since it is a girl, and the episode they played tonight was the debut of the Purple Wolf Ranger, who turns out to be the Rangers' mentor himself, who has the spirit of the Wolf and they even used the whole werewolf storyline mixed in before he becomes the Wolf Ranger.

[venoms5]

Saw ULTRAMAN LEO volume 1 this past weekend. I got volumes 2 through 5 to check out soon. What a cool show this one. Very different from ULTRAMAN and ULTRA SEVEN (the only two Ultra shows I've seen). Leo is a very dark show and the monster fights are right violent akin to what you would see in one of the old GAMERA movies. Ultra Seven is in this show as well but he gets crippled during the opener and becomes the mentor to the Leo character. I had read this was one of the worst Ultra shows but I don't think so. Anyone else seen this one?

[AlbertV]

Update:
Toei Company announced the next Super Sentai Series to premiere in February. The official name is:

Samurai Sentai Shinkenger
I saw an early look at the helmets and it seems the lenses look like weapon blades this time.

Meanwhile, on the U.S. front, Power Rangers: Jungle Fury aired the series finale last night on Toon Disney. Pretty decent ending to the series, but of course pale in comparison to Gekiranger.

Disney has announced the name of their next Power Rangers series, taken from the 2008 Sentai series Engine Sentai Go-Onger. The 2009 Power Rangers series will be called:

Power Rangers: R.P.M.

The series began shooting a few weeks ago in New Zealand and the only actor officially announced so far is 19-year old Eka Darville as the new Red Ranger.

[inframan]

Dynaman was the name of the Japanese and US versions. There were 6 episodes dubbed and released in English. Some of the writing credits go to member of the comedy troupe the Kids in the Hall.

I though it was hilarious Night Flight used to show the last 4 episodes, the first two came out earlier I never saw them on Night Flight but I have a VHS of them. The first two were Party Rhino and Crab Director, the Night Flight episodes were The Lizard of Oz, Spunky the Wonder Squid, the Seven Brides of Lucky Piere, and Flipper. I've found some episodes on youtube but they seem to have part of the final fight from each episode cut out.

I've never seen Ultraman Leo sounds cool though. I have a few eps of Ultraman 80, Ultraman Ace, Return of Ultraman and complete set of Ultraman Taro, all dubbed in English (by Malaysians!)

I'd really like to see Ultraseven get a proper DVD release with subs.

Anyone picked up the Red Baron or Iron King DVD sets? I got the Iron King set and the quality is really good espcially for the price.

[SamuraiDana]

I used to get the new Sentai shows (some sub'd, some not) from VHS dealers in dealers' rooms at comics shows. When that whole scene disappeared, I used to get them (in Japanese, no subs.) from a local (Manhattan) Japanese video store, but they stopped carrying them after "Gekiranger." I don't know why. Since I don't download (my computer can't do it), I'm kind of out of luck, until I get a new computer.

[prometheus126]

my old friend kazuya used to bootleg the shows from vhs copies he used to get from a friend of his in japan and then would sell them. he wouldn't subtitle it (the lazy bum, I know he coulda done it!!) but he would still make a ton of money selling them. because of him, I got my sentai fix early and probably have seen a few more of the shows them some. of the sentais, I've only haven't seen 8 shows in the series (goranger, J.A.K.Q., Sun Vulcan, goggle V, dynaman, changeman, Fiveman, & GoGo-V)