Setting The Stage: Ninja Sentai Kakuranger

I might be giving away the game here but honestly, wanting to take about these two episodes is what gave me the idea for this series. Lets talk about the what are easily my favorite first episodes in Sentai at the moment since they perfectly capture the overall feel of the show: Ninja Sentai Kakuranger. Also I found out while typing this that this year happens to be the show's 30th anniversary so this ended up being rather timely. Say it with me: Kakuranger! Ninja ninja!

Lets start with the first thing you'll see when you hit play on the first episode: The opening theme. Its a great lead in the for show and I just start laughing my ass off  whenever I remember that the scenario in the song is about a dude going "What the fck was that?" and "Oh shit, its a ninja!" while on a date. Its nice and mellow and the song fits the ninja visuals well.

Now into the first episode proper. The episode opens on 5 ninjas fighting a yokai and managing to seal him away. After that it cuts to the present day as two broke ass dudes (Sasuke and Saizo) are arguing over what to have for dinner. Some bizarrely dressed guy is getting his ass beat and they come to help him out. He gives them a mission to drop some money off at a weird out of the way place. The second they set foot there creepy kids start chanting, ninjas appear, and they get chased around. They end up unlocking the seal and unleashing all of that sweet sweet yokai energy. Another ninja appears, points to some swords in the ground, and tells them to 'em yank them out. Thus the Kakurangers are born. This shit is wild and one hell of an opener for the show.

Ok so the premier is actually a two-parter (well technically a four parter maybe). Anyway the episode opens with the yokai (Kappa) getting away after being rescued by his wife. After that Tsuruhime tells them that they can't fight yokai with just the three of them so they need to find a 4th guy and sends Sasuke and Saizo to go get him. Cut to an arcade and we meet the soon to be 4th member of the team: Seikai. Dude is just chilling playing games with his buddy when the yokai running the lady running the joint asks him to test a new game. Seikai follows and gets sidetracked. His buddy sees the two yokai fooling around and comes running screaming about monsters. So now the fight is on as the Kakurangers show up to rescue Seikai and his buddy. They take him back to where the swords are and tell him to grab his. He does and transforms. Its a good fight and it ends with one of the craziest mecha fights I've seen in Sentai. Most of it is a chase scene cuz Kappa is just warping them all over the place. Once the guy's wife is done for, he gets merced too.

This was supposed to have been out way before now. I have spent months trying to type this to try and do these episodes justice but I still don't think its enough. These episodes are a lot to take in imo and I mean that in a good way. I straight up had to abridge most of episode 2 while typing this. Now the team isn't actually complete until like episode 4 and trust me when I say that they are just as wild as the first two. They are just so friggin' good. Everything in this show just feels like a fever dream. Yeah Dairanger and Zyuranger feel like dreams too but their premiers take themselves a bit more seriously. Meanwhile, Kakuranger just embraces the chaos. Something that ends after the team is assembled is the ancestors from the show's opening and I honestly still think thats a shame. Every time the team got a new member those guys would show up and snark it up or just give basic life advice. It helped add to the show's fever dream style.

These are without a doubt the best first episodes that I have seen out of all 16 Sentai I've finished so far and they are basically semi-burned into my memory between watching them on my own, showing them to people, watching them on lunch at work, and watching them again for this post. I'm not really too sure if I got this across in the synopsis but these episodes are damn near perfect for setting up the show. They tell you exactly what you're going to get from Kakuranger: Ninja shit, insanity, and this wild fever dream of chaos.

Ninja Sentai Kakuranger Review

So I got Kakuranger as a Christmas present since I wanted to add it to my collection. I got a lot of the show and I wasn't even expecting most of it. What even is this show?! I mean this in the most positive way possible. Nothing I've seen in Sentai feels like this show. Without further aduei: Hiding among the people and punishing evil! Ninja Sentai Kakuranger has arrived!

The show opens with a flashback showing how the Yokai were sealed. Then it cuts to the present day where two friends see a man getting robbed on the street. They help him out and he hands them a bag begging them to take it to an island. They get to the island and end up being chased by ninjas leading them to inadvertently opening the door sealing the Yokai in the process. The two are saved by a ninja clad in all white and told they must take up their ancestor's blades and stop the Yokai.

Characters:

• Sasuke/NinjaRed: He was actually a lot calmer than I thought he would be. He is a laidback goof so I expected him to be a bit reckless in a fight. However, the second he gets into trouble he actually starts to think before deciding on a course of action. Even when he was distraught about a kid under his protection potentially dying in episode 20, he still managed to stay calm and think things through. Coincidentally, that also happens to be my favorite episode for him.
• Tsuruhime/NinjaWhite: She is the most cool-headed member of the team as she doesn't seem to be frazzled by much. Her father died when she was young so she had to step up and take his place as a Kakuranger. She gets some pretty good episodes to herself, the best of which tend to revolve around a subplot regarding her father. Outside of that subplot, I really liked the episode where she meets her childhood friends again. It was nice seeing her kickback a bit.
• Saizou/NinjaBlue: A lot of his moments tend to be more comedic than the others but he does get some nice dramatic bits to himself. He is also a bit girl crazy like Seikai. The two actually felt so similar to me their until about their scroll episode that I would get them mixed up for about a minute of any episode that was not one of their focus episodes. Needless to say, that stopped after that episode. My favorite episode for him is either the Amikiri episode or the one where he falls into a Yokai plot by trying to help save a ninja dojo. "New Year's Manga Hell" is also a good episode for him.
• Seikai/NinjaYellow: He is obsessed with girls and food. He also tends to be the most reckless. He does have some pretty good comedic moments and one of my favorite gags is when he gives a great speech to a girl he likes about the heart of a hero and why he has to fight then he immediately undercuts it when she is out of earshot by basically saying "I may have gone overboard with the drama". The scroll episode he shares with Saizou is pretty good because he randomly attacks Saizou in order to try to get Saizou to kill him so at the very least one of them can escape the kappa curse. I think those two bits sum him up rather well. However, my favorite episode for him is "The Stray Ghost". Its a nice, heartwarming episode where Seikai helps a kid learn to move forward and become stronger after the death of his grandfather.
• Jiraiya/NinjaBlack: His whole style makes him the standout member of the team for me. Kane Kosugi's action skills are top notch and he has gotten the most out-of-suit action seems out of the whole team. Jiraiya's father was murdered by a Yokai when he was a kid so he was taken in by his dad's best friend and trained in martial arts. Without a doubt, his best episodes are 28 and 29 (the Gali episodes). It leads to a pretty gut-wrenching dramatic moment and performance but I will probably cover that later in the review.
• Ninjaman: He is pretty reckless and full of himself while single-mindedly focusing on fighting the Yokai in his early episodes. He was an apprentice of the Three God Generals before getting sealed away after being tricked into hurting humans by Daimaou so he has a grudge against him. The dude was straight up willing to potentially let himself be killed during the DaraDara episodes if it meant stopping Daimaou's plan. Overall, I think he is alright and I don't have many complaints with him other than him showing up a little late (even compared to TimeFire).

Villains: The Yokai in general have a style all their own. Their monster forms are fantastically designed. Their human forms all expertly played by their respective actors and they manage to make themselves creepy with even minor gestures and movements. Its pretty obvious they were having fun the roles. Even when they have a goofy personality they still manage to get across a level of menace.

I love Junior's style. Kenichi Endo plays the role well and gives him this big goofy rockstar energy while also getting across that Junior is not to be taken lightly. It fits Kakuranger's tones as a whole. Junior's music perfectly captures his personality. He can play this sweet controlled music one minute and just move seamlessly into chaotic wailing on the instrument the next. The dude is pretty much a powerhouse in general and the show always makes sure to get across that the Kakurangers are in big trouble whenever he shows up. I was sad when he was defeated in the show for a status quo change up. Thats how much I dug the character and Endo's performance.

I quite like the Flower Kunoichi-Gumi. The choice to put pink and purple on the same team was interesting plus their designs are really sweet looking. These ladies are nasty piece of work and episode 20 is a great example of the kind of threat they pose with how they managed to push Sasuke into a corner. They went so far as to try and run over a kid knowing Sasuke would help him and then goaded Sasuke by saying its his fault the kid is caught in the crossfire. They even tortured Sasuke with the thought of the kid dying as a result. I would absolutely love to see a team of evil ranger-like beings again (as far as I'm aware, its just these ladies and the Nezirangers from Megaranger). Also thanks to these ladies I can officially add "Ninjas riding a missile while shooting machine guns" to the list of stupidly awesome ways to try to kill someone I've seen in toku. They don't get much development or characterization outside of being the Yokai's hit squad but honestly they don't really need it. I was a bit disappointed there wasn't some kind of climactic battle with them in the show.

Daimaou is great. Something I especially loved is that despite him calling Junior a fool, he still laments his death and vows to make the Kakurangers suffer for killing his son. It would've been so easy to make him the type of villain that takes joy in the death of a commander whose own foolishness was their undoing but I'm so glad he wasn't like that. He is also not easily fooled. Dude saw a betrayal coming and immediately factored it into his plan instead just trying to stop it. The reveal of what he is and how they had to beat him left my jaw on the floor because I was not expecting that at all.

Favorite Episodes: My favorite episodes are episode 28 and 29, the Gali episodes. They're a pretty good dramatic set of episodes for Jiraiya. Its also when we first learn his backstory. The bulk of the two parter features a ton of out-of-suit action so Kane Kosugi really gets to shine here. All of that makes for a really amazing and heartbreaking set of episodes when you find out how his dad died and why he was killed. They're so good that I'm not even gonna do my usual plot-breakdown for this section. Basically if you like Jiraiya than you will most likely love these episodes.

Mecha: The show features a lot of mecha. Its got the 5 Beast Generals, Muteki Shogun, the 5 Jusho Fighters, Tsubasamaru, the 5 Super Ninja Beast, and Kakure Daishogun. Thats a total of 17 and that feels like a lot for a show from the 90s. It has Dairanger's fast mecha fights which felt odd going back to since I finished off Timeranger before this. It really fits the hectic nature of the show. I like that Kakure Daishogun has a 5episode entire arc dedicating to bringing it in. It helps that the entire arc leads up to one of the biggest status quo changes I've seen in a Sentai show and ends up giving its debut a lot of weight.

Music: The music is pretty good. The opening theme is a fantastic hype machine. I was singing along and even dancing by episode 4. That shamisen solo sounds fantastic and it gives the whole opening its own unique feel to match Kakuranger's feel as a whole. Ninja Matenrou Kids (the ending theme) surprised me. I wasn't expecting to like it as much as I did. I was practically dancing to it by episode 6.The show also uses a slower, more mellow, instrumental version of it during the more somber bits of the show and it works really well. Hoshi Yo Nijimura is a pretty killer insert song that plays in episode 44 when Sasuke is raiding Daimou's place. That song made the entire sequence even better. The show's bgm is great and I'm pretty sure I was able to pick out a few pieces from Dairanger in the mix which is fitting since the two shows have the same composer.

Cameos: The show features a ton of cameos from past Sentai actors which just manages to add to its already surreal and weird vibe for me. Its nice seeing a lot of these actors again. This section is pretty much just gonna be me listing off the ones I noticed and ones that friends pointed out to me. Burai (DragonRanger and he was also ChangePegasus), Kaori (White Swan), and Lady Ring's (Dairanger) actors all cameo in episode 9. Radiguete's (Jetman) actor and Byakko's (Dairanger) voice actor show up as Yokai in episodes 5 and 6. Dora Sphynx (Zyuranger) plays the rag Yokai. Rumi (FiveYellow) plays Sakura in the Flower Kunoichi-Gumi. Lami's (Zyuranger) actress plays Amikiri. Mei (PteraRanger) shows up in episode 25. Tsuruhime's father is played by the second VulEagle. The facestealing yokai went on to play MegaRed's dad. Tsuruhime's two friends were her co-stars in Shushutorian (a Fushigi Comedy series). Kirinranger's actor and his twin brother play Taro and Jiro. While he hasn't actually been in Sentai before (as far as I know), I'm adding Gali to this section because he is played by Kane Kosugi's father. Its not really a cameo since he plays the Red in Kakuranger but Sasuke's actor went on to play Black Knight Hyuuga in Gingaman. So yeah, there are a lot of familiar faces in this one show and there are probably more that I didn't recognize.

Final Thoughts: I really like how the team is usually doing their own thing and they just stumble onto a Yokai in town. Its also a nice world building detail that since the battles usually take place in some out of the way place, not even urban legends surrounding Yokai and the Kakurangers pop up in-show. It gives the show a real "war in the shadows" feel, so every civilian ends up reacting like each Yokai appearance is the first time its ever happened. I would of loved to see more of the ancestors in the show since I dug how instead of going on and on about how grave the situation was, they just gave them life advice or snarked it up when they met their descendants. I love how lowkey most of the ninja stuff is. Most of it feels doable and the only thing I'd outright call magic is mecha summoning, the elemental attacks, and the transformation jutsu. The episode "The Great Snow Woman's Snowball Fight" has the single best Jiraiya action setpiece for me. His actor really gets put through the ringer in that episode. I don't usually comment on fashion choices in toku but man the Kakurangers' outfits sure are something else. It says a lot about a team's fashion choices when the guy who debuted dressed up as a cowboy managed to look the most normal. They get new outfits later in the show so they end up looking a bit more normal...well except for Sasuke. Who lets this man dress himself? Overall, I had a lot of fun with the show. If you're looking for some good ol' 90s Sentai fun with a surreal vibe, great monster designs, and some good dramatic bits, then I can't recommend this show enough.

Sentai Suits Through The Ages: The 90's

The 80's were a pretty strong decade for suit designs so now lets move on to the 90's.

Chikyuu Sentai Fiveman:

The big Vs going across the torso look pretty cool and without them the design might be a little too simple. The yellow highlights work well on all five suits. Its also really rare to see them on a yellow suit as normally they'd be replaced with black so they can be seen more easily. The helmets look nice and I like each one has its own emblem on the forehead. The white stripes going down the middle looks good alongside their respective colors. Its a nice touch and it keeps the helmets from simply being one solid color. Red's has a nice little extra bit of flair since his stripe enters the visor of his helmet. It even ends in a little arrow that matches the shape of his visor. I like the segmented visors but I kinda think they went overboard on Yellow and Pink's. They don't look bad per say, more so that they are segmented in a way that looks unnatural given with the visors' shapes. The yellow bands looks good on the white gloves and boots. Overall while not one of the first designs I think of when it comes to this decade, its a perfectly fine design.

Chojin Sentai Jetman:

The bird insignia on the chest looks pretty cool and I love how it wraps around the shoulders. The helmets on all 5 suits look pretty cool and they get the bird motif across really well. They also sort of complete the bird insignia on the chest. The silver mouthpieces look alright on each helmet. The yellow highlights on every Jetman besides Yellow Owl look pretty good with all their main colors. In Yellow Owl's case the highlights are black and they were rather well with the his color. Blue Swallow marks the first time that this shade of blue has been used and it works well with her overall design. The white portions of the suits work well for the ones that they're on. I think they look pretty good and compliment their main colors rather well. I think they look the best on Blue Swallow as there is just something about how that shade of blue mixes with the white and the accompanying yellow highlights. Its probably because its a nice light shade of blue as opposed to all the standard blues the franchise has had before now. It makes the suit feel like it has this sort of shimmer to it. Due to white being her main color, the bits on White Swan's chest and legs are pink instead. The bird emblem on the belts is the icing on top of these designs. Overall these suits are one of my favorites of this decade and Blue Swallow is probably my fav design on this team.

Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger:

They're rather simple but pretty distinct. The white diamond pattern on the main five's chests looks pretty good. The diamond patterns on their boots and gloves are a nice contrast to that since its in their main colors. The white trim on PteraRanger's skirt is a nice touch.The Dino Bucklers on the belts really ties the main five's suits together. The sculpting on all six helmets is great and there is a nice amount of detail on them. I particularly like the sculpting on MammothRanger's trunk/tusks and TigerRanger's fangs. MammothRanger's trunk even goes into his visor. PteraRanger's helmet looks nice thanks to the mixture of white and pink. Most of her helmet is actually white and I love it because it give the pink portion a sort domino mask or faceplate-esque look. Her Pteradon head even extends down into her visor. Its notable because unlike PteraRanger and MammothRanger, the other four's visors are the mouths of their dinosaurs. DragonRanger's suit looks cool. Its a tweaked Zyuranger suit obviously which is to be expected because its a sixth ranger suit after all. His gloves and boots have gold bands on them and a spike pattern instead of a diamond pattern. The chestplate looks cool and the center replicates the diamond that the other Zyuranger's have. The gold on the suit makes the green pop really well and the gold Dino Buckler brings his look together.

Gosei Sentai Dairanger:

The helmets get their mythical beasts across nicely. All six stand out pretty well and I think my favorite helmet might be RyuRanger's due to how well the black on the forehead works with the gold and red. The silver mouthplates look cool and each one has a slightly different design. I think HououRanger's mouthplate looks the best and works with her phoenix motif since it resembles a bird's beak. The white torso on the main five's suits balance out their colors really well. It really captures the martial artist look and gives the suits a very classic vibe. The white bands with gold outlines on the boots and gloves look cool and that color combo really makes their main colors pop. The gold trim on HououRanger's skirt is a nice touch. I particularly like the Dairanger emblem because of how well it uses all 5's colors and its neat that it looks a little bit like a fist. Kibaranger's suit is cool cuz its just a Dairanger suit with a chestplate added. The gold and black works well on the chestplate and I like the emblem in the center but I do think its a little too big. The gold bands on the boots and gloves being outlined in black looks pretty good and all the gold in his suit in general really makes the white pop.

Ninja Sentai Kakuranger:

The suits look exactly how you'd expect a ninja team to look. They're pretty much a perfect example of the "less is more" approach and there is a lot of beauty in that. The gold headbands look pretty cool on all 5 suits and each one has a different symbol on it. The gold belts on Red, Blue, Black, and White work well with their colors. NinjaBlue is a nice light shade of blue which is interesting as its the only time that I know of that a male blue ranger has used that shade. Yellow and Black's suits probably make the best use of the black and white bands on the gloves and boots out of the whole team. For Yellow, its probably because the bands match his belt and it completes his look rather well. The V's on the torso work well to break up the simple design. The black around the necks is a nice touch and I especially like that the tips of the V's are gold (well black in Yellow's case).

Choriki Sentai Ohranger:

The suits have this ancient vibe to them. The helmets look alright and the visors on the main five look good outlined in white. The sculpted mouth-pieces matching each one's respective colors is cool and it kind of reminds me of those Easter Island statues. The weathered gold on the main five's torsos looks pretty good and there is quite a lot of detail on that portion. It looks almost like its engraved metal even tho its still spandex. The gold bands compliment the white gloves and boots rather well as does the white neckline on the torso. The gold trim on Pink and Yellow's skirts is a nice touch. KingRanger's suit looks the best to me, mostly cuz its an Ohranger suit with extra gold armor added to it. The sculpting on his chestplate is great and there is some nice detail in there. His visor looks good outlined in gold. The white gloves and boots really compliment the black spandex and gold armor. The gold belts on all 6 suits look pretty cool and even include all of their shape symbols.

Gekisou Sentai Carranger:

Ignore White Racer for the moment as I couldn't find a decent looking pic without her and hers isn't really a suit per say. These suits look pretty stellar and I love the car panel designs going down the sides. The helmets capture the car motif pretty well and the chrome molding around the visors looks amazing. The helmets even have headlights on them and I just find that to be really cool touch on top of the chrome molding. The sculpted silver mouth pieces look pretty cool when paired with the chrome molding and they look like they're almost sunken into the helmets. The yellow around the neck and on the chest pairs well with the black surrounding them. The black bands on the gloves and boots look good and contrasts nicely with the white. I like that the Carranger emblem is a patch on the arms as opposed to a patch on the chest as it doesn't distract from the rest of the torsos' design. The headlight belt buckle really ties these suits together nicely.

Denji Sentai Megaranger:

These suits are pretty sleek and stylish while being just simple enough. The white on the main five suits helps their main colors pop really well and the white gloves and boots look cool. The yellow around the neck is interesting as you don't usually see that on a team with a Yellow on it. The main five's suits also have little squares going across the white stripe on the chest that match all five of their colors. Its a rather neat detail and it looks better than it would to have them all simply incorporated into an emblem. The white highlights on the main five's helmets work well with their colors and look pretty cool with the silver mouthplates. This Sentai marks the first introduction of a Silver. The gold highlights on the suit look great alongside the silver. His suit includes gold bands that look pretty good alongside his gloves and boots. The green squares look pretty good on the gold stripe going across his chest and if you look closer, they have this sort of wire-frame pattern on them. Its a rather cool and fitting small detail since in-show the suit is a prototype. The glass domes on all six helmets look pretty cool and make them look hi-tech. The domes can actually light up as well which is a really cool touch. The Megaranger emblem on the helmets and belts is a neat detail and it helps bring the overall look together.

Seijuu Sentai Gingaman:

The sculpting on all 5 helmets looks pretty cool and they show off their animals rather well. GingaRed's helmet has these cool looking yellow streaks to match GingaLion's mane. Its a nice touch and it looks pretty good with the red. The silver portions on the other four's helmets look pretty good and the silver works well with their colors. The animal eyes on top of the visors is a nice touch and they make the visors look like wide open animal mouths. The silver mouthpieces look pretty good and the way they're sculpted gives the helmets this tribal war mask vibe. The tribal pattern on the chest, arms, and boots looks pretty good. These suits have the best color balancing I've seen so far. The white portions of the suits are used in a way that perfectly balances out their main colors without overpowering them. Other suits so far have done that too but its more noticeable on these suits for me. The white portion on the chest look like tunics which fits pretty well with the tribal aesthetic. The black tribal patterns really make all 5 colors pop. Overall, its a pretty stellar look.

Kyuukyuu Sentai GogoV:

These look pretty dynamic while being rather sleek and streamlined. The white portions on the torso look cool and work well with their main colors. They also really make all 5 colors pop. None of the colors on any suit overpower the others. I like how their visors are each shaped like a badge belonging to each sibling's profession. Yellow's visor actually makes his helmet look a little slimmer than the others. Maybe its because the visor is kind of square-ish and the bottom corners lineup with where it slopes into the jawline. The gold belt looks good and a nice small detail is that the team's emblem isn't just on the belt, its also on the gloves and boots. The emblem being blue really compliments the gold surrounding it. The gold bands look pretty good paired with the white gloves and boots.

Man this decade sure loved gold highlights/accents. Half of the suits in this decade have them in some capacity. If I had to pick my favorite suits out of this decade, it'd be either Jetman or Dairanger. With that being said, I think Carranger has the best helmets this decade. Overall, its another pretty solid decade for Sentai designs. You may have noticed Ninjaman, Signalman, Hyuuga, and a few others are missing, I'll be covering those and any others that I miss in this series in a later post once I'm caught up to the present.