Toku Tales

I've been watching Sentai since about late 2023, starting with finishing Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger. The next one I watched in full was Mahou Sentai Magiranger. There is a signicance to this.

My whole argument with my dearly departed bestie was that watching Super Sentai would ruin any Power Rangers series I already loved. That was the biggest reason. I believe that is probably why he showed me Gokaiger first. Even though Power Rangers Megaforce was going to use elements of Gokaiger, it wasn't airing yet so Fred was getting us both ready.

I think (not sure) he felt if he showed it to me first then I saw the Power Rangers counterpart it wouldn't have a huge impact on my enjoyment. (Actually, it kinda went in reverse, but let's not get me started on Super MegaForce, okay? Okay.)

Mahou Sentai Magiranger was the source material for the first non-Zordon series of Power Rangers I had ever watched in full, Power Rangers Mystic Force. That series was so dear to me. But some coaxing from other friends convinced me to try it. The worse that could happen is that I Didn't like it and never touched Sentai again outside of Gokaiger.

What actually happened is that I fell in love with the Ozu siblings. I loved Kai, I loved Tsubasa, and Hikaru? Forget it. I was smitten. I loved the family dynamic. It was just something that even Power Rangers Mystic Force didn't have. (Okay okay yes, Nick ended up being Udonna and Leanbow's son, and we did have Maddie and Vida) but the Ozu siblings' story was just...fuller? (Sorry, Mystic Force. I will always love you, especially you, Xan-Man) . This gave me the courage to attempt watching another favorite, much later.

That one was Timeranger. Now let me tell you about me and Time Force. Time Force had one trope I was already in love with: Time travel. I've been a sucker for Time travel for as long as I can remember. So this was a no-brainer.

However, Time Force introduced me to one of the best characters in the franchise. Trip. Trip was an outcast even in his *own* time. And he was not about to let anyone, criminal or otherwise, be bullied. Especially when said criminal wasn't even dangerous. The speech he gives, peformed so brilliantly by Kevin Kleinberg, struck me right in the feels. The fact that he was willing to let Eric shoot him instead. Eric couldn't do it once he realized the person he thought he knew was unique too.

Timeranger is a little different, but you can definitely see that Time Force was adapted as accurately as possible without having to censor too much. There were a few things that they obviously couldn't do that Timeranger did. One of the biggest changes was in Ayase counterpart, Lucas. Ayase's story is a lot darker and frankly a lot more emotional (This is no disrespect to Lucas. I loved him just as much as I loved the entire Time Force team. His story was just as good.) Because of the nature of it, I guess they figured it was too dark for kids. (One of many actual stories that didn't make it).

I'm not going to go through all of Dekaranger, SPD's counterpart. I will say that due to no fault of Greg Aronowitz, we missed out on a great ranger. Tetsu became my favorite ranger outside the main team. I keep wondering who they would've cast to play future Sam. Greg has said on Instagram multiple times he'd really really wanted to include Tetsu's counterpart. That, in itself, tells me that Greg wanted to make it more accurate if he could.

Okay. All of that said. What I realized is that watching those specific series, the ones that I held so dear, and now watching the Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger, the counterpart for my absolute favorite team, Dino Charge, is that I can love both the Sentai and the Power Rangers versions equally and in some case one more than the other, but still love them.

I can almost hear Fred now, "I told you." Well, I'm still paying homage to him by finally learning this lesson. And while I feel like my time with Sentai is almost up (Unless I suddenly decide I need to see more), I've enjoyed every team I have seen.

Thankfully I did not have much of an issue with this when it came to Kamen Rider. I just chose not to watch the one series that was adapted into Masked Rider. I wasn't as attached to Masked Rider as much as I loved it. Probably because it didn't last nearly as long and unlike other toku adaptations (Beetleborgs and VR Troopers, I'm looking at you), it didn't appear to have lasted too long in the minds of others who were exposed to it.

I did watch Ryuki but it wasn't until I was nearly halfway through that I discoverd it had also had an American adaptation. Not sure I will try and track this down because I know for a fact my favorite character Ryuki was more than likely *not* adapted into the American version.