We all know about the Pirates vs. Ninjas meme, but what happens when the ninjas are pirates? That’s what happened with last year’s incarnation of the Super Sentai, Kaizoku Sentai Goukaiger (Pirate Warriors Goukaiger). So the Super Sentai are the original form of what becomes the Power Rangers in the US, before they strip out all the scenes with Japanese actors and re-do it all with American (or more recently, New Zealand) actors just keeping the fighting scenes. So ever since KyÅryÅ« Sentai Zyuranger was re-broadcast as the original Power Rangers in 1993, the Power Rangers have always been Ninja-based. They had ninja zords, ninja powers, ninja this and ninja that. In the original Japanese the yearly incarnation wasn’t always so ninja-centric, only Kakuranger in 1994 and Hurricanger in 2002 were specifically ninja-based. Others have been police/detective based, car based, Kung Fu based, and even Samurai based.
However last year’s incarnation was absolutely based around pirates. Here’s the intro if you’re interested. Although Power Rangers have been brought to the US since 1993, in Japan it’s been going since 1975-76, and for the 35th anniversary of the Super Sentai Toei Studios decided to do something special: the gimmick is that the ‘Pirate Rangers’ have stolen the powers of all the previous Rangers, and can call upon their powers during battles. This basically means lots of nostalgia for adults that grew up watching the show, as well as numerous cameos from actors and actresses from former years of the show.
Even though I only knew incarnations from 1992 and onward, it was interesting – and at times appalling – to see the real old-school characters. Probably the most bizarre was Battle Fever J from 1979. Partly inspired by Marvel character Captain America, and partly inspired by the disco craze of the late 1970’s, Battle Fever J had 5 heroes: Battle Japan, Battle France, Battle Cossack (Soviet Union), Battle Kenya and Miss America. It pretty much has to be seen to be believed. Also keep in mind that this came right after the Japanese Spiderman (which btw, can be watched in its entirety on the Marvel website), of which the most normal reaction for Americans seeing it for the first time is this:
Also in Battle Fever J, it’s painfully obvious that during the fighting scenes that Miss America is being played by a guy. Well, I guess it’s just following a long tradition of Japanese theater. (On the other hand, in KyÅryÅ« Sentai Zyuranger, which became the original Power Rangers, the Yellow Ranger was actually a guy. I wonder what Thuy Trang felt about that?)
So that was a little strange, but I also got so see a bit of some of the really good Super Sentai that have never been translated into English. Specifically, Jetman was the year before KyÅryÅ« Sentai Zyuranger, but is regarded by many as the best of all of them in terms of story. Ryoko and I in fact watched all of it and it was a lot of fun to watch, though much of it hasn’t aged well to tell the truth. Also the original Time Rangers from 2000 is a favorite of many, which in a way is unfortunate because that became Power Rangers: Time Force which was frankly pretty crappy.
If you’re interested in watching Gokaiger, the entire series (with English subtitles), can be torrented here.