For those of you that don't have a clue as to what I'm talking about, let me break it down for you. "Sentai" is a Japanese word meaning "task force" or "battle team". It refers to the genre of Japanese television where 5 heroes decked out in primary colors jump really high and fight guys in rubber suits. The color that a hero wears acts as an indicator of his or her personality and purpose on the team:
In addition to the core team of heroes, there is always a mentor character who trains them in the use of their powers, and sends them off to fight the monster of the week. The mentor can be anyone or anything:
Each of these different sentai shows are comprised of about 50 half-hour episodes. In the first episode, we meet the heroes, the mentor, and the main villain of the series. The main villain of the series usually has a small band of henchmen, and an army of cannon-fodder soldiers. Each week, the main villain sends a different monster out to terrorize the populace of Tokyo, and the heroes obliterate the monster.
Every sentai team has a finishing maneuver, or "big nuke", that they use to destroy the monster-of the week. Usually, it's a giant robot or a big gun made up of all of their signature weapons. In the first sentai show, "GoRanger", it was an exploding soccer ball (Cut them some slack; it was 1975, and they had a low-budget, even by Japanese standards). "Battle Fever J" (1979) was the first sentai series to feature a giant robot.
Every so often, a sixth member of the team will join the heroes midway through the season. He's usually more powerful than the others, and gets his own cool giant robot. He usually becomes the most popular, too (Big One in "JAKQ", or Green Ranger/White Ranger Tommy from the first two seasons of "Power Rangers.")
Anyway, It's big, dumb fun with lots of explosions. I love it, and I'm not sorry. Neither are these people....
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This Sentai
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