072: SoraRabbit Watches: Himitsu Sentai Gorenger

Those of you who’ve been around the SoraRabbit Hole for awhile should know that I love tokusatsu. Those who haven’t may be wondering just what that is. It’s a term for Japanese programs that rely on the use of special effects, either practical or digital. Sounds kind of broad, but it’s mainly used to refer to television programs or movies involving superheroes, sci fi, and kaiju (giant monsters). Famous examples of these would be Godzilla and Ultraman, two of my favorite franchises. I have already covered some tokusatsu here in the past. Here are the main posts, but there have also been several side posts and deep dives:

I’ve already mentioned that my life’s mission (one of many) is to watch and discuss every Ultraman series, movie, miniseries, and special on this blog. It’s going to take me a very long time to get through all this, considering at the time of this writing there are 33 series and well over 1000 episodes. (Not to mention all the movies.) This staggering task is one of the things that kept me from exploring other tokusatsu series… aside from Thundermask, of course, which is mostly lost media with only 8 episodes known to still exist.

But then curiosity (partly driven by my fascination with Thundermask) drove me to locate and watch the first episode of Himitsu Sentai Gorenger, otherwise known as the first entry in the long-running Super Sentai series, which may be familiar to you even if you don’t yet realize it. More on that soon.

Look familiar? (Credit: Ishinomori Productions, Toei)

That’s right, Super Sentai is the series best known in America as the basis for the other long-running show and multimedia juggernaut, Power Rangers. For many, Power Rangers is one of the definitive faces of the 90s. I used to watch the show with my little brothers, who loved it when they were young. I loved it too, but I couldn’t say why. (And also wouldn’t admit it.) It wasn’t the writing… the acting… the silly plots… the blatant commercialism… the repetitive story beats… the silly-looking giant monsters fighting huge robots— no wait, it was totally that last one. Yes, although I steadfastly refused to admit it back then, I did love Power Rangers, but it was actually mainly the Japanese parts that I loved.

I’ve been wanting to check out Super Sentai for ages now… especially after catching random episodes of the various Power Rangers iterations over the years. The designs of the suits, the creative monsters, the wild fights… it called to me and I wanted to see the original inspirations. But seeing just how many series there were, and how difficult it could be to get my hands on the earlier installments, I couldn’t bring myself to take the plunge. (Same with Kamen Rider, but more on that another day… hint, hint.)

But like I said, I watched and enjoyed Thundermask, although I could identify that there were many places it could have done things better. At its heart there was something there that drew me in. After locating the entire series of Himitsu Sentai Gorenger, I sat down to watch the first episode and was instantly hooked. I was lost and knew I would need to watch every episode of every series. I continued to fool myself for a time that I would just watch it for me and would leave it out of this blog… but I think all along I knew it would end up here. At first I relented and decided it would be a Short Hop and only discussed broadly. But then I kept taking more and more notes, finding more and more awesome screenshots, and it first blossomed into a full-length post, and then an entire series just like I’m doing with Ultraman.

Watching this series is part of the reason I haven’t been able to focus on Ultraseven (the next series I will be covering for Ultraman). This is the longest of all the Super Sentai series and it’s taken me awhile to get through it. (Plus I got distracted by Doctor Who and reading comic books before bed.) But lately I’ve developed the routine of putting on TokuSHOUTsu in the background every day. This is a live streaming channel by Shout! that plays alternating episodes of the various Ultraman, Kamen Rider, and Super Sentai series. (And sometimes Godzilla, but he has his own channel.) Seeing more of the later incarnations of Super Sentai has refocused me on finishing this series so I can finally tell you all about it. I have decided that although I will be covering a lot of different tokusatsu programs on this blog, I’m going to try to just watch one at a time so that I don’t get confused jumping between Super Sentai and Kamen Rider and Ultraman.

So comic booky. (Credit: Ishinomori Productions, Toei)

Himitsu Sentai Gorenger was created by Shotaro Ishinomori for Toei Company. (Shotaro Ishinomori was also the brains behind a little series called Kamen Rider…) It aired on network television in Japan from 1975 to 1977 and ran for a whopping 84 episodes. The title translates to Secret Squadron Goranger. (The Goranger part means there are five rangers, as “Go” is the Japanese word for five. Kinda puts the slogan “Go go Power Rangers” in a new light, huh?) Along with the episodes, there were also five movies, four of which were just theater-sized cuts of individual episodes, which was a practice at the time… I assume to get the movie-going public interested in watching the series on television. The fifth movie (placed in continuity roughly between Episodes 56 and 57) was the only original movie. After the finale of the second Super Sentai series, the team returns in J.A.K.Q. Dengekitai vs. Gorenger, which I'll talk about in the next post. (Although the teams meet, I don’t believe the series take place in the same fictional universe so it’s likely out of continuity. I could be wrong… we’ll find out!)

Gorenger’s inclusion into the vast Super Sentai meta-series was in contention for a long time. See, the third entry (Battle Fever J) is the first that officially used the franchise name of Super Sentai. (Side note, Supaidaman was created by the same people and in the same spirit as these, but is not considered Super Sentai.) Some publications and official sources excluded Gorenger and J.A.K.Q. from the series for many years. It wasn’t until the 20th anniversary that these two founding series were finally acknowledged as being a part of Super Sentai.

One of the hallmarks of Super Sentai are giant robots battling giant bizarre monsters. There’s none of that here. The Gorangers use a flying ship, a tank, motorcycles, and even a balloon, but they mostly fight on foot. (The giant robots don’t come in until Series 3— Battle Fever J— and the way was paved for them by Supaidaman.) The monsters the Gorangers fight are terrorists with high-tech masks that give them themed powers. (And another side note, the official spelling in the series is Gorenger, but I mostly will refer to them as Gorangers. They’re exactly the same and Toei just decided to spell it with an “e” in this series. Later Super Sentai spell with an “a”.)

This looks like a really weird college class. (Credit: Ishinomori Productions, Toei)

The premise is simple. The Gorangers must battle against a vicious terrorist group called the Black Cross Army. The army is composed of foot soldier called the Zolders. Zolders are disposable foot soldiers that make weird echoey noises. At times people are unmasked and turn out to be Zolders. The Zolders are never shown without their masks, so it’s debatable if they’re human or robots. (Much about this show is debatable… I love it, but they really don’t let themselves get bogged down in unnecessary frivolities like explaining anything.) The Ranger Wiki claims they were brainwashed to be loyal, so they’re probably human henchmen.

Late in the series, when the Black Cross Army gets more serious, they also have Zolder ninja, who are much stronger, armed with swords, jump around a lot, and can disappear. The Gorangers always have to use their most powerful attacks to defeat the ninja Zolders.

Fork this guy. (Credit: Ishinomori Productions, Toei)

The main antagonists are the “monster of the week”, the Masked Monsters. Their names are generally whatever gimmick they embody plus the Japanese word for mask. So, for instance, Denwa Kamen is Telephone Mask. There was one of these on pretty much each episode. Some examples: Sword Mask, Steel Wire Mask, Blue Vein Mask, Can Opener Mask. They’re well-armed, strategic, and accompanied by Zolders. (And later, Zolder ninja.)

The Masked Monsters are interesting to me. The main question I had watching this show was whether they were robots or people. Some of their masks have no clear eye holes. In Episode 29, Iron Man Mask opened up Door Mask's head and put a little computer in it. But then in the very next episode, Mine Mask talks about dying and was able to be put to sleep. It's unclear. Blushing Mask was specifically stated to be an android. Iron Snake Mask refers to having to drink human blood to survive, implying she's not human. Half of her face appeared to be metal, so she was probably a cyborg or a straight up robot.

More proof: Telephone Mask was annoyed when one of his minions had to go to the bathroom and complained that humans are inconvenient. Robots then? But… Pineapple Mask's eyes and the skin around them could clearly be seen in one scene, but I think that was a production error. Later he was shown with black makeup around his eyes, covering the skin. Still, he was shown napping at one point. So maybe some of them are people? But later on his head came off and was replaced by a new head. So... robots? I don't know. I'm probably overthinking this, as usual. But it's fun to overthink things!

Wait… cyborgs? Yeah. I’m gonna go with cyborgs.

The dreaded Sun Halo Mask. (Credit: Ishinomori Productions, Toei)

The Masked Monsters and Zolders are led by the Mask Generals, which are a rotating group that serve as ongoing antagonists until they fail too many times and are forced into battle (and defeat) themselves. These are the elite, the best of the best, blood-thirsty master tacticians. I’ll talk more about these guys in the plot section.

The bad guy’s base of operation at first is the tunneling heavily-armed fortress called the Navarone. For a few episodes they also had a base called Atlantis, but as the show goes on, that base is destroyed. After a time they acquired the plans for the Condor Battle Fleet which are plane/hang gliders that are piloted by Zolders. They are led by powerful ships called the Battlers, which carry the Condors into battle. The Navarone was finally destroyed in Episode 54 and replaced by the Black Cross Castle, a massive ship (ten times the size of the Gorangers ship) which is of alien origin. Yeah… there’s also aliens, but they’re only mentioned, not shown.

So that’s the power structure and arsenal of the Black Cross Army. They are led by a mysterious man named the Black Cross Führer who at the beginning of the series makes the extremely unfortunate fashion choice of wearing a robe with a white pointed hood.

Is… is this symbolism? (Credit: Ishinomori Productions, Toei)

Uh, yeah. That was a… choice. Anyway, the Führer goes through a few transformations as the series goes on. First his hood splits at the bottom and his eyes glow through it. Then he shows his corpse-like gray face and dons a weird star helmet.

How can you take your boss seriously wearing that stuff, guys? (Credit: Ishinomori Productions, Toei)

The motivations of the Black Cross Army are never explained, but I would assume it has something to do with conquering the world? And they’re starting with Japan? Who knows. They’re just the bad guys and never explored. But anyway, let’s meet our heroes!

Goranger! (Credit: Ishinomori Productions, Toei)

The Gorangers are elite members of an antiterrorist organization named EAGLE. They have color-coded suits and code names, individualized weapons and specialties. Their powers are not fully explained, but seem to reside in their suits. They transform either by leaping into the air and flipping or spinning around quickly.

From left to right: Peggy, Asuka, Kaijou, Shinmei, and Daita. (Credit: Ishinomori Productions, Toei)

The Gorangers are made up of five young members of EAGLE (which stands for EArth Guard LEague) who survived devastating attacks by the nefarious Black Cross Army which wiped out their respective branches. The first five episodes concern the newly-formed team taking down the masked agents who led those attacks. The human faces of the Rangers are:

Akaranger (the red one): Tsuyoshi Kaijou. His brother and the rest of his branch of EAGLE were killed by the Black Cross Army and he has vowed to stop them. He is the leader and strategist of the team.

Aoranger (the blue one) is Akira Shinmei. He is their pilot and is very attached to their ship. He wears a cowboy hat when out of costume and presents himself as level-headed and laid-back. According to the wiki, he wants to be a race car driver, but I don’t recall that ever being mentioned in the show.

Midoranger (the green one) is Kenji Asuka. He seems to be the one with the most fondness for fighting. He’s also the youngest member at 17. He is often paired with Peggy.

Momoranger (the pink one), Peggy Matsuyama is the bomb expert. She is the one who creates and modifies the finishing move bombs. She also defuses bombs when needed. She always wears hotpants that are way too short and go-go boots. She’s so 70s. (Note that “Momo” is a more traditional word and actually translates to "peach". “Pinku” is the more common Japanese word for pink.)

Kiranger (yellow guy) is Daita Oiwa He is naive and trusting and it gets him into trouble. Especially when curry or cyborgs are involved. (Seriously, twice he was fooled by cyborgs.) He is the Gorangers engineer and mathematics expert. He is also a judo expert and is super strong. He was by far my favorite character. He had the most developed personality, with his overwhelming love of curry and weakness for riddles. (And his rivalry with Taro's bird.) I like the idea that someone who is smart in math and mechanics can be out-thought by a grade-school boy. (He’s also the reason I got into curry, having never tried it before this show.)

Kiranger II is Kumano Daigoro. Between episodes when Golden Mask arrives, Daito was sent off to be an EAGLE trainer, necessitating a new Kiranger. (The out of universe reason was that Daita’s actor was starring in a play and had to be written out for the duration of its run.) He's a little awkward and rash, a little gruff. Very inexperienced and often makes mistakes. I don’t think the poor guy was ready for this job.

The Commander and his agents. (Credit: Ishinomori Productions, Toei)

Their boss is Commander Gonpachi Edogawa who disguises himself as the chef of Gon’s Snack Shop. His specialty is curry, which he cooks for Daita on several episodes. (That guy can pack away the curry, no lie. It’s pretty much the first thing we see him do in the series.) The Goranger base is actually hidden deep underground beneath the shop. For some reason, Commander Edogawa kept his identity secret from the Gorangers for the first few episodes of the series before revealing himself to them. (I think they were trying for a Charlie’s Angels thing at first with his mission commands relayed over radio.) Throughout the series, his identity was a sought-after bit of intel for the Black Cross Army. They even captured him once to force the Gorangers to reveal their Commander’s identity, never learning they had the actual guy in their clutches.

Yoko Katou is Agent 007, member of EAGLE. She assists them on several missions, usually staying out of danger. She can drive their tank, though, so she must have some training. She is also shown to be good at hand-to-hand combat and has fought her share of Zolders.

Taro is a little boy who seems to live in Gon's Snack Shop. He is Yoko's little brother and is the main source of the riddles for the episodes. He has a pet bird who also tells riddles. He’s very logical for his age (must be all the riddles) and has helped the Gorangers come up with plans and solutions to their problems.

There were also Agents 008 and 009 but they stopped showing up after a bit. There was also a spy with the designation 003, who showed up once near the end of the series and died immediately. (I wonder if 004-006 had the same fate?)

The gang’s all here. (Credit: Ishinomori Productions, Toei)

In their superhero forms as the Gorangers, the team has a variety of weapons and abilities. (And kicky capes.) Each have a signature weapon (Kiranger didn’t have one at first, he was just really strong.) Midway through the series their weapons were upgraded. They pull their weapons from their visors, which— you guessed it— isn’t explained.

Akaranger has the Red Bute (whip) that can turn into the Bute spear or the Drill Bute. (Although “bute” is not really the Japanese word for whip… that’s Hoippu. Bute seems to be a word made up for this show. Interestingly enough, it was later used to refer to whips in Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, and Kamen Rider, probably as an homage to this series.) New Red Hunter is an exploding grappling hook that he doesn’t use often. He also has the Silver Shot, which is a tranq gun.

Aoranger uses his bow for melee fighting and ranged attacks. His arrows are called the Blue Cherry. Later he has the Ultra Blue Cherry. His bow shoots both arrows and rockets.

Momoranger usually uses Earring Bombs. (Which are exactly what they sound like.) She has another weapon called the Momo Mirror, a heart-shaped mirror that can blind her enemies. Now and then she uses the Momo Card which is a shuriken-like projectile that also explodes. (She really likes blowing things up.)

Midoranger has the Midomerang but it was split in two by Razor Mask and he upgraded to a Super Midomerang. The Midomerang is very sharp and can be used as a hand-held blade as well as thrown. He also has a slingshot that can fire explosives called the Mido Puncher.

Kiranger usually just throws himself against enemies, boasting about being as strong as a volcano. Sometimes, though, he uses the Kisticker, a staff that he can put heads onto like a hand or a boxing glove. He has two main attacks he does with this: the Rock Paper Scissors and the DoReMi where he does musical scales on enemy’s heads. He also carries a YTC radio that can disrupt electronics.

Just casually holding explosives. (Credit: Ishinomori Productions, Toei)

As super heroes, they have a variety of tactics and moves they can do.

Goranger Storm: Their main special finishing move at the beginning of the series. An explosive resembling a vollyball, the Ranger Ball (referred to sometimes as a Storm Ball) is passed around until Akaranger kicks it into the enemy, vaporizing them. Momoranger creates the balls, as she is their explosives expert.

Goranger Hurricane: When their suits were destroyed and their equipment was upgraded, the Gorangers devised a new, stronger finishing move. This one is football-themed, requiring them to pass the End Ball between them, finishing with Akaranger, who kicks it into the enemy. Before striking the enemy, it turns into their weakness, for instance Can Opener Mask caught a sealed tin which exploded when he tried to open it.

Goranger Charge: This technique shares power with a weakened Goranger. This move was only used once.

Goranger Circle: They form a circle and teleport somehow. (Again, only used once, although it seems like it would be useful.)

Goranger Scramble: Only used in Episode 78. They link arms and form a barrier with Ki in the center.

The team’s battle cry is “Combine Five Powers into one! Gorangers!” To transform they shout “Go!” and jump in the air doing a flip. (Or sometimes they just spin around.) It’s never explained if their powers are in their suits, but I assume so, since they seem much stronger after transforming. The suits give them access to their weapons, which seem to be stored in their visors. Daigoro was told when he joined the team that a calm and focused mind is needed to transform, so that’s weird. Their suits at first appear to be indestructible, as they are never damaged or torn. However Diamond Mask was strong enough to destroy them and so they needed new suits. Even out of the suits they’re well-trained in hand-to-hand combat.

Birdie! (Credit: Ishinomori Productions, Toei)

The Gorangers have personal jetpacks attached to their belts called “Birdies”. I’m not sure on the range on these, but I’m assuming fuel is limited as they generally use their jet for longer trips.

Vroom! (Credit: Ishinomori Productions, Toei)

As I mentioned before, the Gorangers have a lot of high-tech toys to fight the Black Cross Army with. More than any other, we see the Machines, the motorcycles they use as their main form of transportation. There are red, blue, and green Machines, driven by the respective Goranger. Momo and Ki get to ride in sidecars. They sacrificed these Machines to blow up the Black Cross Army’s fortress.

The upgraded versions of the bikes were called the Star Machines. It’s not really said what is upgraded about them, but they look slightly different.

The mighty Varidreen! (Credit: Ishinomori Productions, Toei)

Without a doubt, the star piece of machinery in the Goranger’s arsenal is the Varidorin. (It’s pronounced Varidreen and that’s what my subtitles called it, so that’s the spelling I’ll use.) Referred to as a “flying fortress”, this ship is a VTOL (vertical takeoff and landing) craft. It’s fast and full of weapons. It’s often piloted by Aoranger. It has guns, a smokescreen, missiles, and bombs. Its wings have talon attachments that can grapple enemy crafts. It transports their other machines around and comfortably seats all five Gorangers.

Their original ship for the first half of the series was called the Variblune. It was much smaller and more compact than its successor. After several episodes it even got its own jaunty theme song (with lyrics) which they seemed to have forgotten about shortly after. It was destroyed in the final battle against Temujin.

Varitank holding Injection Mask in the Ten Fingers. (Credit: Ishinomori Productions, Toei)

One vehicle that has gotten them out of trouble numerous times is the Varitank. This is carried on the Varidreen and can be parachuted out. If it flips over it rights itself. The tank has many attachments, such as a drill and two extendible arms with hands called the Ten Fingers. It can auto-pilot, as shown at the end of episodes when it drives behind the Machines.

The Varikikyun flies into battle. (Credit: Ishinomori Productions, Toei)

Near the end of the series they got the Varikikyun, which is a silly-looking but effective balloon they could ride around in. When not in use, it was also carried in the Varidreen. The balloon has smoke cover and guns. It's equipped with a beak that can be shot out to attack and a hand that can grapple enemies. And it looks so ridiculous. I love it.

That’s Daigoro on the right. (Credit: Ishinomori Productions, Toei)

So that’s all the establishing information. Now for the actual show. As with Ultra Q and Ultraman, I’m not going to go episode by episode. Rather, I am going to go over the main story beats and the arc of the series. I’m going to talk about the first and last episodes, the changes in the Generals, and a few individual episodes of note.

Standing at attention. (Credit: Ishinomori Productions, Toei)

First a few notes about the episodes. They are somewhat formulaic, but there is plenty of variety. Each episode concerns a plot by the Black Cross Army. Every episode has a new Masked Monster to defeat, or the General. They generally fight the Masked Monster once early on, then later in the episode they fight their way through Zolders culminating in a duel with the Masked Monster. They defeat him with the Goranger Storm / Hurricane. After it hits him, he screams in a fiery inferno. (I think this represents his immortal soul being sent to hell for his sins.)

lol (Credit: Ishinomori Productions, Toei)

A major running theme in the series is riddles. Taro likes to tell riddles and Daita can never get them. Example: “What doesn't leave a hole when shot with a gun?” Answer: Well, you’ll just have to wonder about that. I forgot to write down the answer and can’t remember which episode this was in. Oops. (The answer was probably air or something. If you know this one, leave it in the comments. It’s kinda bugging me.)

For the majority of the series there were one or more riddles an episode. For a span of episodes, the narrator would even tease the next episode’s riddle in the "next time" sequence. It seemed to have been a device to get kids thinking and engaged during the episode, but maybe it was just that riddles were really popular at the time.

The riddles are sometimes hard to translate since usually they're word play based on words that have two meanings or sound similar in Japanese.) For instance: “What would you call a chair that grows wings?” A chair (isu) that grows wings is a nightingale (uguisu). Another example I noted down: “What kind of a lamp can’t be lit?” A trumpet. Lamp (ranpu) sounds similar to the word for trumpet (toranpu).

Others are more universal. “When you face up it faces forward. When you face forward, it faces down.” (Nostrils.)

They started to drop this as the show went on but it did still make a few appearances in the last quarter of the series. They did manage to squeeze in a riddle in the final episode and it was actually plot-related, which was cool.

Now this has to be symbolism… (Credit: Ishinomori Productions, Toei)

Another odd running theme was crucifixion. This is not just relegated to Gorangers either… I have seen crucifixion scenes in Thundermask, Supaidaman, and Ultraman so far. (I am sure there are some in Kamen Rider too once I get far enough.) It’s wild how often this form of execution shows up in this series, however.

Yeah… four times in 84 episodes. There was a fifth incident, but they just had Kaijou stand in front of the cross and shot at him, he wasn’t tied to it.

The battle begins. (Credit: Ishinomori Productions, Toei)

The first episode set the stage for the series, jumping straight into the action. We saw five EAGLE bases raided by the Black Cross Army and everyone at each one wiped out except for the main characters. They each survived the raids, one per base. This set up them being survivors, and also fueled their crusade against the Black Cross Army since their friends (and in Kaijou’s case, family) were killed.

An undefined amount of time passes and we see the survivors training before being summoned to a place called Snack Gon. As soon as Daita arrives he gets in an argument with the chef (later revealed to be the Commander) about his ability to eat large curry bowls. He insists he can eat four and Edogawa states his bowls are too large and one would be enough. Daita quickly proves he can eat four large bowls. While he’s doing this, the others comes in and we meet Taro. Once everyone is gathered they go deep into the subbasement to find the Goranger control center.

The Variblune’s first flight. (Credit: Ishinomori Productions, Toei)

The Gorangers then go on a mission of vengeance, facing the five Masked Monsters, one each episode. Their fallen comrades are avenged, but the Black Cross Army is still out there, plotting and scheming.

Kiranger explodes like Mt. Aso. (Credit: Ishinomori Productions, Toei)

After this the show falls into its comfortable routine. Every episode introduces a new Masked Monster and a new plot. Sometimes the plots are simple things like finding out who the Goranger commander is, destroying their ship or tank, stealing secret EAGLE plans… that sort of thing. Some of the plots are much bigger, like destroying Japan’s supply of oil, causing devastating earthquakes, or bombing the hell of out Tokyo.

The Masked Monsters are varied and each have their own gimmick and specialty. Here’s a few of my favorites:

Those are just some of the many Masked Monsters. I thought the topmost one looked like the Cybernetic Ghost of Christmas Past From the Future from Aqua Teen Hunger Force.

And yes, that last one is a gun with guns. (Because I heard you like guns on your guns.)

The fearsome Iron Man Mask General Temujin. (Credit: Ishinomori Productions, Toei)

Sun Halo Mask was the first General. (His photo was earlier in the post.) But then the Führer grew tired of him failing and replaced him. He only lasted six episodes, from 15-20.

His replacement was Iron Man Mask Temujin the Mongol Demon. His big story arc was a three-parter about the Atlantis Warship and his plan to sink all of Japan into the ocean. It culminated in the Gorangers having to execute the Goranger Storm in midair to blow up the airship. (This was the only three-parter in the series. There were a handful of two-parters and most episodes were self-contained.)

You know Magman is a big deal because of all his medals. (Credit: Ishinomori Productions, Toei)

At the midpoint of the series, Iron Man Mask gets worried that the Führer is about to replace him so he sets off on his own to destroy the Variblune, which has just been fitted with a drill missile. The drill missile destroys the Black Cross Army’s missile base.

The Führer is sick of Iron Man Mask failing so much so he makes him work with Volcano Mask General Magman. Temujin refuses and runs off. He interferes with Volcano Mask’s plans so he can kill the Gorangers himself. In a plan both brilliant and absurdly dumb, he uses a freeze ray and magnets to stick two Goranger Storms to himself and steals the Variblune. The Storms thaw and blow him up, but the Variblune is destroyed in the process. Iron Man Mask lasted from Episodes 20 - 42.

I think I could pull off a cape. (Credit: Ishinomori Productions, Toei)

After they get the Variblune is destroyed, the Gorangers use EAGLE plans to build its replacement, the Varidreen. At this point, the Führer evolves into a silly gray-skinned guy with an oversized cross helmet. (At least he's out of his klan outfit. Yeesh. What were they thinking?) It actually seems like his evolution was done out of rage, since he bursts from his robe with a cry of frustration.

The Black Cross Army finds the weaknesses in the Goranger suits and so they have to develop enhanced suits. (Which look identical to the old ones.) They also got their improved weapons at this point as well as their new finishing move, the Goranger Hurricane. This uses the End Ball, which doesn't just explode, it turns into something specific to the opponent. For instance a butterfly or a golden pistol. When they battled Big Ear Mask (try to guess what his gimmick was!) the End Ball turned into a giant ear plug.

Magman gets tired of failing and uses his massive fortress the Navarone (which tunnels underground) to destroy everything in sight. The Gorangers use the Varitank to tunnel into the Navarone. It escapes, but they get the blueprints. After decoding them, they find the weak spots to blow up. They use the Machines for this, luring it out with the Varitank. They sacrifice the Machines and blow up the Navarone, striking another big blow against the Black Cross Army. They finally battle Magmar and defeat him. He only made it from Episode 42 to 54.

He’s giving me “dangerous Muppet” vibes. (Credit: Ishinomori Productions, Toei)

Commander-in-Chief Golden Mask is the villain for the rest of the series, starting from Episode 54. He is the top General and is actually a supernatural being, awoken by black magic.

I wish they’d shown more of him. His design is great. (Credit: Ishinomori Productions, Toei)

The original movie, The Bomb Hurricane, is basically just an episode in widescreen. (It’s actually shorter than a normal episode— 20 minutes instead of 25.) The Führer’s plan is to bomb six major Japanese cities.

Their opponent this time is the Steel Sword Dragon, a feral beast that is immune to all their attacks... including the End Ball!

Haha right in your stupid star-face. (Credit: Ishinomori Productions, Toei)

This is actually the first time the Gorangers come face to face with the Black Cross Führer. He disguised himself as a woman (in a slinky bikini) to distract the Gorangers while the missile base was completed. Aoranger actually manages to shoot several Blue Cherries into his facemask, but he escapes.

They shoot down the missile with the Varidreen and then destroy the missile base with the Varitank. They attack Steel Sword Dragon with a new finishing move: the Bomb Hurricane, which sends five End Balls at him at once.

Setting up the Bomb Hurricane. (Credit: Ishinomori Productions, Toei)

The movie was pretty cool, but mostly because they were in a new setting (a boat and the beach) and the picture quality was better… likely done with a movie-quality camera. I liked the idea that their End Ball failed the first time, since they generally relied on that as their finisher move.

They really love that plane. (Credit: Ishinomori Productions, Toei)

On Episode 64, the Black Cross Army suddenly has a flying castle with a force field and a fleet of battleships to rival the Variblune. It turns out they've teamed up with invading aliens and things get a lot more tense. (Although the aliens are never shown or referenced again.) The Black Cross Army Castles occupies Tokyo. They start blowing things up and destroy all the EAGLE bases aside from the hidden Gorangers base. The Gorangers managed to drill under the force field with the Varitank and destroy it, then fly their bikes in (yes the bikes can fly sometimes) and set bombs throughout the castle. Boom. But uh oh, that was a fake castle. The real one flies away.

Poor Daigoro. (Credit: Ishinomori Productions, Toei)

In Episode 67 in a shocking turn of events, Daigoro is killed by Can Opener mask. Daigoro is depressed because his mistake let the bad guys steal an experimental mold that can disolve metal. (Kabika X.) They couldn't even deploy the Varidreen to stop the Army's unrelenting attacks for fear it would be dissolved by the mold. At Daigoro’s lowest point, the team’s mascot little boy Taro is hit by a car and at death's door. The mold damaged the car, so Daigoro blames himself for that too. (Don't worry, Taro recovers.)

Ooo, right in the Kiranger. (Credit: Ishinomori Productions, Toei)

To make up for his mistakes, Daigoro sneaks off to find Can Opener Mask's secret base. Bravely but stupidly, he faces the villain down all alone. He manages to destroy most of the mold but Can Opener mask fires a blade into his chest, goring him.

So sad. (Credit: Ishinomori Productions, Toei)

Even though he's dying, he's more worried about Taro and comes up with the plan to throw the last container of Kabika X into the Black Cross Castle. His last words were "From now on... I won't be so careless." Then he dies. This was a huge moment for the series, showing that even a main character can be killed.

RIP. (Credit: Ishinomori Productions, Toei)

After this Daita comes back to take up the mantle of Kiranger again. I was happy to see that since he was my favorite Goranger, but Daigoro had kind of grown on me. Even though he was a screwup, he was likable. Anyway, with Daita among them again they were able to use the Goranger Hurricane (it takes all five of them to pull off the finishing move) and defeat Can Opener Mask. Sadly their gambit of destroying the Black Cross Castle failed. The war continued, the dire stakes much more obvious to our heroes.

Yeah, this one’s a pineapple. (Credit: Ishinomori Productions, Toei)

On Episode 69 (nice) the Varidreen is almost destroyed by Pineapple Mask's pineapple bombs. (You may have somehow guessed this, but these were bombs that looked exactly like fake pineapples.) In order to get past their defenses the Gorangers needed something unexpected. They decide on the experimental Varikikyun, the silly balloon I mentioned earlier. Since it can be carried by the Varidreen, fly at low altitudes, and land easily among the bombs, this worked to defeat Pineapple Mask's defenses.

The Varikikyun was used in most of the remaining episodes and I am completely convinced it was created expressly so that they could make a new toy for the toy line. Yes, the Gorangers had toys. Toys are a big part of Super Sentai culture. regardless, the Varikikyun is amazing and I will not stand for anyone disparaging it.

Episode 77 was a strange one. For one thing, Peggy wore jeans. That would be crazy enough on its own, but for the first time ever the Masked Monster was a female villain-- Iron Snake Mask. Every prior Masked Monster and everyone shown to be involved with the Black Cross Army up to that point had been male. (Even the bikini girl in the movie was actually the Führer in a clever disguise.) Another female agent appears in Episode 79, an assassin with the code name of Black Shadow 9 working for Skate Mask. She turned out to be a cyborg, but I think she also counts. Cyborgs is people too.

Here we gooooo! (Credit: Ishinomori Productions, Toei)

Episode 84 ended the series. Mars is in Scorpio and Golden Mask warns the Führer to not leave the castle because of an ancient prophecy. The Führer thinks he's above prophecies and horoscopes and decides the time has come to issue a formal challenge to the Gorangers and defeat them by his own hand. (Seems kind of reckless to do this on the one day you’re warned not to, but hey I’m not an evil mastermind.)

The epic battle begins! (Credit: Ishinomori Productions, Toei)

The Führer soon proves immune to their upgraded weapons and shrugs off their physical attacks. Desperate, they go right for the Goranger Hurricane. The End Ball turns into a guillotine and chops off the Führer’s head, but it pops right back on and he's fine. He claims to be immortal and says not even a hydrogen bomb could defeat him. (Which makes me wonder why he waited 84 episodes to attack them directly. But again, I’m not the evil mastermind here.)

I wonder if he’s been gradually gaining power throughout the series. After all, in the Bomb Hurricane movie the Blue Cherries seemed to hurt him, but they bounced off him in this episode. His change from offensive hood to ridiculous star-hat seemed violent and spurred on by anger, so it’s possible his power has just built to the point where it’s beyond the abilities of the Gorangers.

Or it could be the aliens. You know… the ones we never see and were only referenced in passing. Yeah, I bet aliens did it.

Zappity. (Credit: Ishinomori Productions, Toei)

The Führer shows his technique, the Black Cross Spark, in which he catches each Goranger with a rope of their own color and electrocutes them. He's just about to stab Akaranger with his Black Cross Sword when he collapses in unexplained pain. The Führer retreats into his dumb-looking star helmet and his Zolder minions put him into a casket to protect him. Golden Mask knows it's the star alignment of Cassiopeia that caused his sudden weakness. This is the exact scenario he warned about.

Oh lord. Put your boss in his suitcase, guys. (Credit: Ishinomori Productions, Toei)

So that the Zolders can ferry away the Führer, Golden Mask takes his place and finally attacks the Gorangers. They go at him with all they have and defeat him easily, not even needing to use the Goranger Hurricane. He scatters into gold dust and forms a foreboding rainbow.

“A golden rainbow. What does it MEAN?” (Credit: Ishinomori Productions, Toei)

After this Daita runs into Taro who gives him an odd riddle. "The Gorangers go on a space trip. What stars did they visit?" Daita isn’t sure since there are so many possible stars. The answer is Cassiopea. CA for Kaijo, SHI for Shinmei, O for Oiwa, PE for Peggy, and A for Asuka. So the name Cassiopea corresponds to the first syllable of each of their first names. They really are the five stars, and this is what the prophecy/horoscope meant. The Gorangers learn that during their fight, Cassiopea emitted strong radio waves and X-rays. The theory is that the Black Cross Führer is weak to those cosmic rays. But they can’t just assume since that could spell failure.

Oh no, where will Daita get his large curry bowls now? (Credit: Ishinomori Productions, Toei)

Golden Mask's sacrifice finally revealed the location of the Goranger base. It's somewhere below the golden rainbow. (How? Remember he was a supernatural being, so it’s probably magic.) The Führer is recovered and ready to attack. The Black Cross Castle flies to the city and starts bombing in a radius around where they've determined the base to be. In the process they destroy the Goranger base and Gon's Snack Shop. (I’m assuming killing a bunch of innocent people in the process.) Everything seems stacked against the Gorangers and to make it worse, they only have ten minutes of fuel remaining for the Varidreen and no way to refuel.

Kaijou’s plan is to stroll right up to the bad guy unarmed. (Credit: Ishinomori Productions, Toei)

Kaijou hatches his final plan and brings a briefcase to the Führer. Kaijou states Scorpio is already past Mars and nearing the Moon. The prophecy now says that when Scorpio is aligned with the Moon, the Emperor falls and the empire lies in ruins. The Führer claims his power is beyond everything. In the briefcase are small lightbulbs set in a W pattern to represent Cassiopia. The Führer recoils at the sight of it, proving his weakness. (And I don’t care how badass you are… if you’re scared of a Lite Brite you’re nothing to worry about.)

Seriously, what is with that headgear? (Credit: Ishinomori Productions, Toei)

Before Kaijou is shot on his crucifix (That is the fourth appearance of a crucifixion in the series, as shown above.) the Gorangers attack, fight off the Zolders and then the Führer himself. They use a move called the Cassiopia Scram where they all attack him at once. While he's off balance they use the Goranger Hurricane and it turns into a burning W. Weakened, the Führer tries to run and hide but is attacked again by the Gorangers. His head comes off and he explains that he's the Machine Emperor. His head turns into the Black Cross Castle and grows, flying away. They realize that all along the Führer himself has been the Castle and he's learned how to transfer his brain into a machine. This is why he thinks he's immortal.

The Black Cross Castle but it’s also a guy? (Credit: Ishinomori Productions, Toei)

The Gorangers hop in the Varidreen for the last time and fly into into the Black Cross Castle using their limited fuel. The Varidreen and Star Machines have been filled with explosives. They drive the Star Machines on autopilot into different places in the Castle and use their Birdies to bail out as the Castle and the Führer explode.

Down it goes. (Credit: Ishinomori Productions, Toei)

With this, the Gorangers have defeated the Black Cross Army once and for all. Japan (and the rest of the world, I guess) is safe!

Victorious! (Credit: Ishinomori Productions, Toei)

The last episode was great. It brought everything to a satisfying close, ending the conflict with Golden Mask, the Führer, and the Black Cross Castle. The only downside was that Golden Mask proved to be a bit of a wimp, but they did imply he didn’t put up a fight since dying was his goal, a sacrifice for the good of the Black Cross Army. And besides, the real focus was on the long-awaited battle with the silly-looking boss-man himself.

I’d been waiting the whole series for them to finally face the Führer , and the battle didn’t disappoint. The whole episode had great pacing and built to a satisfying ending. There was lots of action and everyone got a chance to join in the fight. I like that the riddle and Taro actually played an important role in helping them figure out how to win.

SHOCK. (Credit: Ishinomori Productions, Toei)

So that was Himitsu Sentai Gorenger, the first of many, many Super Sentai series. I enjoyed this show from its opening minutes. Although it did take me almost a year to get through all 84 episodes, I was never bored by them.

This doesn’t even need a caption. (Credit: Ishinomori Productions, Toei)

Downsides: The show does get a bit repetitive, but there was enough variation to the battles and episodes to keep it interesting. The plot was a bit unclear. They didn't fully explain the Goranger's powers and how they got them. The biggest problem was in the motivations of the Black Cross Army. They really didn't explain why they were so intent on destroying Japan. World domination and I guess they were starting there? Not entirely sure. Just evil for evil’s sake I guess. I also would have liked to learn more about the Goranger's human alter-egos. The most well-defined character was Daita and the rest barely got focus outside their missions.

How many kid’s shows are allowed to say “shit”? (Credit: Ishinomori Productions, Toei)

Not necessarily a downside but notable nevertheless, it may be surprising for a kid/teen-oriented show, but they use a lot of profanity. not bad, bad... bastard, shit, damn, stuff like that. I did notice that it was mostly the bad guys who used those words. Just a way of showing how bad they are, I suppose. They use naughty words. We should hit them. (Or, as Akaranger once said: “send them to hell”.)

Just another skeleton. (Credit: Ishinomori Productions, Toei)

There's a lot of death in this show. A lot. Innocent bystanders, scientists, EAGLE personnel and soldiers, not to mention all the Black Cross Army Zolders and Masked Monsters. Even poor Daigoro died trying to stop them. For someone who grew up on He-Man, Transformers, and G. I. Joe where swords never cut and lasers and bullets always missed, this would have been jarring to little bunny SoraRabbit. I would have loved it, of course… American kids in the 70s and 80s were only given tastes of the awesome entertainment they could have.

STAB. (Credit: Ishinomori Productions, Toei)

This show is shamelessly violent and showy. The camp value is high, but it never strays from its premise. This is a world where brightly colored superheroes run around fighting terrorists who may or may not be cyborgs, narrowly averting large-scale disaster week after week, and look stylish doing it. I identify that the camp and violence may not be to everyone’s liking, and since the series is so old, it may appear primitive and cheaply-made at times, especially when compared to the later glitzy, high-dollar productions in the franchise. (In recent years they’ve started using CGI for the Rangers. RIP suit actors.)

Poses! (Credit: Ishinomori Productions, Toei)

There were a lot more upsides in this series to me. Although the characters and premise were not fully explored, I did like the cast (especially Daita) and the costumes. (Well, not so much the Führer… either main iteration.) The Masked Monsters were varied and had interesting design choices. At times silly, at other times badass. The fact that they didn’t shy away from violence and death was refreshing. The darkness of the premise and content was balanced with the brightness and optimism. Good triumphs, but they have to work for it. Although they always had happy endings, not everyone made it to them. It especially impressed me that instead of having Daigoro step down and let Daita return to the role of Kiranger, they crafted a failure and redemption story for him that ended in a hero’s death. It was unexpected and well-done.

I like that Momoranger is not "the girl of the team". She's never portrayed as weak or less than the others. She's never left behind or put into the role of the damsel in distress. (Kaijou was captured way more than she was.) She’s never posed as a possible romantic option for the guys on the team. She's not objectified in any way, aside from always wearing tiny booty shorts. Rather than being relegated to the background (or kept on communication duty like poor Fuji on Ultraman) she’s always right in the action, beating up Zolders and blowing shit up. She fights as hard and as effectively as the rest of the team. This was absolutely a tally in the plus column for me and I hope they keep this representation up on future series.

Look at it go! If I had a Varikikyun, I would fly that baby everywhere. (Credit: Ishinomori Productions, Toei)

I love that they were constantly ramping things up on this show. Upgrading their suits, their weapons, their vehicles. The bad guys kept upgrading so they also had to in order to keep up with them. It kept things fresh. As the show neared the end, the Gorangers were no longer easily winning their battles, they had to work for it. They had to devise new attacks, use their new weapons more, come up with new strategies. It gave the show a real sense of raised stakes.

I really do love this balloon. (Credit: Ishinomori Productions, Toei)

This was the first of many, many Super Sentai series. They've been pretty much in continuous production for the last 49 years. (Oooh, 50th anniversary is coming up... wonder what they're going to do for it?) There have been, at the time of this writing, 47 series with 2,469 episodes between them. There have also been a number of theatrical releases, some original and others adapting individual episodes. Many of the movies are crossovers between the different series, although the continuity is separate.

One of the most notable legacies is that this series inspired Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Power Rangers adapts aspects of Super Sentai with original content geared more towards American audiences. Power Rangers continues to this day and has many series, movies, comic books, and video games. Power Rangers currently has 30 series/seasons, 1,005 episodes, and four (soon to be five) movies.

Another lasting legacy are the other works that have been inspired by Super Sentai. My favorite among those is Radiant Black and the Massive Verse running in Image comics. So many people have been inspired and entertained by Super Sentai and Power Rangers over the last five decades… and Himitsu Sentai Gorenger is where all of that began.

This has been the desktop picture on my computer for over a year. (Credit: Ishinomori Productions, Toei)

While rough and unpolished at points, Himitsu Sentai Gorenger as a whole is a solid piece of art, crafting a world and a formula that served as a springboard for everything that came after. While the giant robots and monsters that later serve as key features of the franchise are not in evidence here, we do have the germination of the lasting idea. Brave and noble young adults in colorful suits fighting for good and right in a world driven to the brink of domination and destruction by the forces of darkness. The Gorangers are beacons of light, stars to keep the darkness at bay. I love this series for everything it is and represents, faults and all, strange choices and amazing camp… it all morphs (haha) into a series that is unique and memorable.

I hope you enjoyed this look back at the humble beginnings… the seed that sprouted into not just Super Sentai, but also Power Rangers and everything else inspired by it.

Salute! (Credit: Ishinomori Productions, Toei)

Thank you for joining me on the beginning of another long journey… this time through the entirety of the Super Sentai catalog. (Not even joking about this… I am watching all of this from beginning to end. All 2,500 or so episodes and movies.) I really did have a lot of fun watching Himitsu Sentai Gorenger and then parsing through my (sometimes disjointed) notes to craft this post for you. I hope you liked this adventure as well. Until next time, keep fighting the darkness in your own ways, know that I appreciate you all, and I’ll be back soon with more! And now to celebrate finishing this post, I think I’ll go have a big bowl of curry.