Himitsu Sentai Goranger is the first Super Sentai that aired on 1975 and created by Shotaro Ishinomori, best known for his other live-action creation, Kamen Rider. I decided to watch this because it’s the first Sentai AND it was banned here in the Philippines during the Martial Law era. So, here’s the summary and my thoughts about it.
The episode started literally, with a bang, here’s the reason, all five EAGLE bases, are attacked by the Black Cross Army, a group of terrorist whose mission is what else? Destroy the world. From the 5 Japanese EAGLE bases, each base has one surviving member, namely, Tsuyoshi Kaijou, Akira Shinmei, Daita Ooiwa, Peggy Matsuyama and Kenji Asuka.
These five knew that it is time for the Gorangers to take action, thus Tsuyoshi aka Aka Ranger decided to gather all five into one place, Snack Gon. After throwing all the invitations to the other four surviving members, one by one, they went to Snack Gon in which, Peggy, Kenji, Daita and later, Tsuyoshi appeared. They went inside to one of Snack Gon’s doors which turned out to be leading them to EAGLE’s underground base in which while on the way, are surprised by the arrival of the fedora wearing Akira.
Combining the metal things seen earlier, it was used as the key to open the base in which they learned their enemy’s next attack. Black Cross Army is planning to explode a factory in which Kindergarten children are inside held captive and so, the Gorangers take action.
Tsuyoshi, Peggy and Kenji ride their vehicles while Daita and Akira ride their mecha which kinda look like a Chinook helicopter. The group went to the warehouse in which the teacher of the pupils is held captive by the goons of the Black Cross Army led by Gold Mask. They defeated the goons and save the teacher. The three tried to open the door but failed, so Tsuyoshi asked the ones riding on the mecha to destroy the roof and save the bus that held the kids.
Tsuyoshi then curses Black Cross Army and faced them alone. He went to the field in which the Black Cross Army went. He fights the goons alone and lo, his teammates appeared and one by one, introduced themselves as Ao Ranger, Ki Ranger, Momo Ranger and Mido Ranger. Tsuyoshi transforms into Aka Ranger and introduced themselves as the protectors of the Earth, they are the Himitsu Sentai Goranger!
The squadron defeated all the goons and faced their commander, Gold Mask and Aka Ranger commanded Momo Ranger to release the ball and do their finisher, Goranger Storm that killed Gold Mask. After seeing learning the death of Gold Mask, Black Cross Army swears to defeat the Gorangers.
On to the review, for the first Super Sentai, all I can say is, wow. Seriously, even though they don’t own a giant robot, they were able to fight the enemy. If I would compare this to the current Super Sentai, it’s darker in terms of storyline, as expected to everything Ishinomori creates.
Since it’s the first Super Sentai, it created the staples of the show, namely, the color coding, the roll calls, the group attack and lastly, the use of a mecha. In terms of the story, it contrasts to the colorful Super Sentai costume. Its dark storyline gives me the interest watching the show aside that they don’t use a giant robot.
One thing that I liked about this show is their weapon system. In their weapon system, it explains where their weapons came from and probably one of the weirdest source of their weapons, their googles. Yes, their weapons came from their googles... which in my own opinion, kinda cool. Aka Ranger's weapon is a whip, Ao Ranger's weapon is a bow, Mido Ranger's weapon is a boomerang and Momo Ranger's weapon is kinda weird, a heart-shaped mirror that emits flashes of light. By the way, they haven't revealed on that episode Ki Ranger's weapon.
In terms of the fight scenes, it felt like heck, a Kamen Rider can beat all the goons without any help, how come Aka Ranger took time to beat them all? As for their finisher, even though it is not as shiny or as cool as bazookas, it is one heck of a finisher. Seriously, kicking a soccer ball to beat down an enemy is one of the coolest moves I have ever seen. I think it inspired Detective Conan’s soccer ball fight scenes.
Overall, for the first show in the franchise, it created a good impression on Japanese kids back them, teaching them teamwork and leadership. As for me, it felt like Goranger is not your average children’s show, it’s more like an X-Men film directed by Bryan Singer with colourful costumes.