#aoranger

Shinmei Akira: Aoranger (Gorenger)

An illustration of Himitsu Sentai Goranger from 1975.

What gets me about this image is how Momoranger’s costume is strangely reversed with the main body being white with pink boots and gloves while the V’s on her chest and number on her helmet are pink instead of red. Also note the absence of her trademark heart-shaped earring grenades.

For the uninitiated Himitsu Sentai Gorenger has 84 episodes so I'm going to be collecting my thoughts every quarter for this bad boy.

SO,,,, this is my first full tokusatsu series I'm watching through. My addiction was laid through bits and pieces of 2010s kamen rider and super sentai (plus a childhood of watching Power Rangers Dino Charge) and so I thought, well, if we're going to go in let's do it from the start.

I was nervous to start with because boy this series is long and being the first super sentai series I had no idea what elements would be the same or how well it would have aged. But my love for low budget 60s/70s tv is strong so we dove right in :))))))

Go! (Go-Go!!)

To cease anticipation,,, Gorenger is so fun!!!!!

The start setting everyone up was quite rushed but its quite alot to fit in 25 minutes! By ep21 all the 5's personalities have really come out. The first ranger to get alot of time spent with is ki who is honestly who I would be on the team. I am now fighting a craving for yellow curry I think I'll be battling for the rest of there series :O Also I love ki's interactions with Taro and how he keeps the rest of the team laughing even when in quite sticky situations. Momo is a boss bitch and I love her, I wish my earrings too exploded. She keeps getting psychologically tortured and I love how she is involved in lots of the Bond-style episodes. Ao is the pilot of the fantastic variblune and also,,,,, guitars??,,,, and cowboy??,,, but we love him for it. He is so hot-headed but is always there for his team. Aka really has been through it not only loosing his unit but his brother to Sun Mask, I really hope they dive more into the feels but his duel with Sun Halo Mask was epic. Mido has had the least attention so far but I love him and momo pairing up on duties and we gotta respect a carrier pigeon caring fellow.

I was so dubious about the costume seeing comparisons of all the series,,, but,,, actually I love them so much. Its a different style being all cloth but I loveee all the little details tying them all together: the stripes, the numbers on their helmets, the logos on their shoes! Also the transforms are so iconic this series does love its reversed and repeated footage lmao!

It has also been so fun watching the special effects budget slowly increase!!

Also so many of the villains have had such cool designs, with lots of them being legitimately intimidating, though I understand they get cheesier as the show goes on!! Special mention to Poison Gas Mask and his woggle and Skull mask and his sheer cuntiness for being the most iconic so far. I loved all the bitchy infighting between Sun Halo Mask and his underlings, only just been introduced to Temujin but fuckass cool design.

Also shoutout to the Commander and 007, 008, 009 who are keeping the whole operation running and are bringing the juicy bond vibessss.

Basically the whole thing is cheesy fun and thats exactly what I need rn lmao.

tldr I love Gorenger and can't wait to continue the run!!!! ( and fail to solve the riddles)

The hat was never going to be a good idea, at least that's what he'd been told by his peers back in Touhoku before the attacks.  Akira had always had a thing for cowboys, for their independent spirit and relative freedom.  Or, maybe it was more fair to say he'd always had a thing for the romantic ideal of the cowboy.  The reality held far too much in the way of dust, cow dung and flies for his tastes. Plus, there weren't the kinds of open spaces needed to be a cowboy in Japan, at least not on the ground. 

He'd gotten a reputation with his shooting skills and love of the bow and arrow for being something of a character back at the old EAGLE base.  One of his younger trainees from those days even called him 'Cowboy' for a while.  The memory was bittersweet though as Akira remembered watching him bleed out the night of the Black Cross attack. Remembering that young man's life cut so short made Akira feel older than his quarter century. 

There were those who had once accused him of being a Ladies' man and a playboy but nothing could be farther from the truth.  He really didn't want to get tied down by anyone or anything, even love. The only tie he cared to have was to his duty and to the country he loved.  He would die for that, to keep others free from the kind of petty tyranny organizations like the Black Cross wanted to impose on the world. 

Yet, he admitted, love comes in many forms and not all of them are people. The old stories told of the men of the range being closer to their horses than to other people. Akira could understand that. He felt the same way about his steed. 

She might not have been a horse but the range didn't offer the same freedom as the skies. His love was a red and white beauty with twin turbines and VTOL capabilities.  Gorgeous lines and modern design made her more enticing to him than any woman and she'd take him to heaven and back every time he got behind those controls. 

He knew his other teammates might not understand but to him, the Variblune was more than the team transport, more than a machine.  To him, she represented freedom, the true freedom that only the wide open skies could give him. She was his horse, his steed, his love and the one thing he trusted above anything else, maybe even more than his team.