50 Fun Facts About Super Sentai

Which Marvel hero's 1978 Japanese TV series introduced the giant robot idea that Super Sentai adopted a year later?

Spider-Man piloted a giant mecha called Leopardon, summoned whenever the show's monsters were enlarged. That two-stage fight became the standard ending of a Super Sentai episode.

When Zyuranger became Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, the heroes' combined giant robot was given which famous new name?

Megazord was Daizyuzin in Japan, formed from five machines that the story presents as mechanical-looking deities, each modelled on a different prehistoric creature.

Super Sentai's roll call, in which each hero announces a name and title, was inspired by which Japanese theatre?

Kabuki supplied the idea through Shiranami Gonin Otoko, a play first staged in 1862. A stunt coordinator on the very first series is credited with bringing its introductions to television.

Zyuranger's villain, the witch Bandora, was re-dubbed in English to become which Power Rangers arch-enemy?

Rita Repulsa is still the original Japanese actress on screen in season one, with an American voice dubbed over her. The producers even brought her back to film new shots for the US show.

Which other Japanese hero franchise shared the Sunday-morning Super Hero Time block with Super Sentai from 2003?

Kamen Rider, which began in 1971, came from the same manga artist who created the first Super Sentai team. The two shows aired in the same block for more than two decades.

Which colour ranger was a man in Zyuranger, leaving Trini without a skirt in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers?

Yellow was worn in Japan by a male hero called Boi, the Tiger Ranger. The US show reused his fight footage for Trini, so her suit has no skirt, unlike Kimberly's.

Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger, the anniversary series whose heroes can become any of 34 earlier teams, casts them as what?

Pirates from space, the Gokaigers came to Earth hunting the Greatest Treasure in the Universe, and could claim it only by winning a power from each earlier team.

Which Marvel Comics legend tried to sell an early Super Sentai series to American networks years before Power Rangers?

Stan Lee shopped a Japanese team show to ABC, CBS, NBC and HBO without success. Margaret Loesch watched him try and later, as head of Fox Kids, said yes to Power Rangers.

Ressha Sentai ToQger won a special award from Japan's transport ministry for making children love which vehicles?

Trains are the whole show: the heroes drive giant ones along a hidden railway called the Rainbow Line, which only people with a great imagination can see.

In Zyuranger, as in Power Rangers, the sixth hero calls his giant dragon robot with which musical instrument?

A flute is built into Burai's dagger, the Zyusouken, and its tune calls his guardian machine, Dragon Caesar. Tommy's Dragon Dagger works the same way in the American version.

Which manga artist, already famous for Cyborg 009, created the first two Super Sentai series in the 1970s?

Shotaro Ishinomori devised the colour-coded team in 1975. Because the franchise he started was later reworked into Power Rangers, he has been credited as a co-creator of that series too.

Battle Fever J, Super Sentai's first giant-robot series, was originally developed around which Marvel superhero?

Captain America was the starting point because the series was co-produced with Marvel Comics. The finished team's heroes carry names such as Battle Japan, Battle France and Miss America.

Avataro Sentai Donbrothers (2022) is loosely based on which Japanese folktale about a boy and his three companions?

Momotaro is the boy born from a giant peach, so the show's hero, Taro, is found as a baby inside a peach-shaped capsule and raised by the man who discovers him.

Which producer got the idea for Power Rangers after watching Super Sentai on a hotel television during a trip to Japan?

Haim Saban and his partner Shuki Levy then shopped the concept around for at least five years, by Levy's account, before a network finally said yes in 1992.

Which Japanese film studio has produced every Super Sentai series since the first one aired in 1975?

Toei makes the shows for the broadcaster TV Asahi. For three early series it had an unlikely production partner, the US publisher Marvel Comics.

Super Sentai belongs to which Japanese live-action genre, a label it shares with Godzilla films and Ultraman?

Tokusatsu literally means 'special filming'. The term took hold in Japanese media around 1958 as an easy way to explain special effects to the public.

A 2012 unofficial Super Sentai parody, made for adult fans, has its heroes protect which Tokyo district?

Akihabara is the fan-culture district the trio swear to defend, though the powerful villains they fight exist only in the heroes' own delusions. The show is named for it: Unofficial Sentai Akibaranger.

In which country are Super Sentai series dubbed and retitled as Power Rangers, with an exclusive sequel to Kyoryuger?

South Korea has aired the Japanese shows under names such as Power Rangers Engine Force, and was given Power Rangers Dino Force Brave, a sequel made only for its market.

Lupinranger VS Patranger (2018) pits a squad of police officers against a rival Super Sentai team of what?

Phantom thieves recruited by a retainer of Arsène Lupin, the trio steal to save their loved ones. It is the only series built around two opposing hero teams.

The Japanese word 'sentai' in the franchise name Super Sentai is usually translated into English as which military term?

Squadron is how the word is rendered in English titles, from Samurai Squadron Shinkenger to Electromagnetic Squadron Megaranger, so the franchise's own name means Super Squadron.

Which 1975 series, the first Super Sentai show, ran for 84 episodes, the most of any entry in the franchise?

Gorenger ran for almost two years and set the pattern of five colour-coded heroes led by the one in red. Abroad it was sold under the plainer title Five Rangers.

The cyborg heroes of J.A.K.Q. Dengekitai, the second Super Sentai series, take their code names from what?

Playing cards give the team Spade Ace, Dia Jack, Heart Queen and Clover King, and the commander who recruits them takes the code name Joker.

Which 1981 Super Sentai team is the only all-male line-up in franchise history, with just three members?

Sun Vulcan was also the franchise's first direct sequel, continuing the previous year's story and bringing back its villain queen as a cyborg with a mechanical heart.

In Battle Fever J's roll call, heroes such as Battle Cossack and Battle Kenya each perform a different what?

Dance defines the whole team: Battle Cossack performs a traditional Soviet number, Battle France a flamenco, Battle Kenya a tribal one, and the pink-suited heroine goes disco.

Dynaman (1983) was the first Super Sentai team to drop capes and scarves for suits made of which fabric?

Spandex suits also reached American screens before Power Rangers did: the late-night show Night Flight ran six Dynaman episodes redubbed into English as a satire.

Which 1994 ninja-themed Super Sentai series is led by a teenage girl, Tsuruhime, instead of by its red ranger?

Kakuranger's 15-year-old leader fights as Ninja White. Its action footage fed the third season of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, and its suits became the Alien Rangers.

Which 1991 bird-themed Super Sentai series built its drama around a love triangle between three of its heroes?

Jetman sets two of its heroes, Ryu and Gai, against each other over their teammate Kaori. The show also gave the franchise its first female commander, Aya Odagiri.

Which 1996 vehicle-themed Super Sentai series, the basis of Power Rangers Turbo, was written as a self-parody?

Carranger sent up its own franchise's formula. It was only the second team built around vehicles, following Turboranger seven years earlier.

Which 1993 Super Sentai series about Chinese martial arts supplied new giant robots for Mighty Morphin's second season?

Dairanger's robots crossed the Pacific but its hero suits did not: apart from the white Kiba Ranger, the American show kept using the previous year's costumes.

In which 2021 Super Sentai series are four of the five heroes machines modelled on earlier teams' giant robots?

Zenkaiger's lone human fights beside four Kikainoids styled after past machines such as Zyuranger's Daizyujin, and the team members themselves combine into its giant robot.

Which American toy company bought the Power Rangers franchise, built on Super Sentai footage, in 2018?

Hasbro paid $522 million. Under its ownership the 2023 season Cosmic Fury gave the Rangers original costumes while still borrowing Japanese robot footage.

Hyakujuu Sentai Gaoranger's mecha are sentient creatures summoned with jewel orbs; what is the collective name for them?

Power Animals live on the Animarium until called with Gao Jewels. The 2001 show marked the franchise's 25th anniversary and was adapted as Power Rangers Wild Force.

Which 1984 Super Sentai series opens with a giant robot from a destroyed planet arriving in 15th-century Japan?

Bioman's robot, Bio Robo, showers five people with Bio Particles, and five centuries later their descendants are chosen to become the team.

Which 2017 space-themed Super Sentai series began with nine heroes and grew into the franchise's largest team?

Kyuranger added three more members to reach twelve, each tied to a constellation. Its robot footage was later reused in Power Rangers Cosmic Fury.

Ohsama Sentai King-Ohger (2023) is the only Super Sentai series whose heroes pair a royal theme with which creatures?

Insects and royalty define all the leads. Its hero, Gira, declares himself an evil king to topple his own ruler, and in doing so awakens the Shugods, the machines that form the robot King-Ohger.

Kishiryu Sentai Ryusoulger (2019) is the only Super Sentai series to pair its dinosaur theme with which kind of warrior?

Knights of the Ryusoul Tribe were fighting a war 65 million years ago when the meteor that ended the age of dinosaurs cut it short. It was the fourth dinosaur-themed series.

Tensou Sentai Goseiger (2010), a tie-in with the arcade game Dice-O, stars heroes who are which supernatural beings?

Angels are the show's motif. Its heroes transform using items that resemble those players fed into the real arcade machine, Super Sentai Battle: Dice-O.

The five Hoshikawa siblings of Chikyu Sentai Fiveman (1990) all share which day job when not fighting the Zone Empire?

Teachers at Newtown Elementary School, the siblings had trained hard and developed their parents' technology in case the invaders ever reached Earth.

Which Japanese toy company co-produced the Super Sentai shows and manufactured the toys based on them?

Bandai's American arm also helped adapt the Japanese names of characters and machines when the shows were turned into Power Rangers.

Megaranger (1997) was the second Super Sentai series, after Turboranger, whose five core heroes are each what?

A high school student fills every seat in both core teams of five: Turboranger's are seniors summoned by the last of the fairies, and Megaranger's footage became Power Rangers in Space.

Which 2025 series, marking Super Sentai's 50th anniversary, was the last to air before the franchise's hiatus?

Gozyuger was the 49th series and the only one to combine modern, prehistoric and mythical creatures as its motifs. The franchise had also paused once before, in 1978.

In which 2005 Super Sentai series do five siblings gain their powers after their mother transforms in front of them?

Magiranger's main themes are courage and love of family, and its action footage went on to become Power Rangers Mystic Force.

Which 2004 Super Sentai series about a special police unit became the American show Power Rangers S.P.D.?

Dekaranger's officers protect Earth from alien criminals called Alienizers, and the cast reunited for anniversary sequel films in 2015 and 2024.

Each hero of Dai Sentai Goggle-V (1982) fights with a weapon based on equipment from which Olympic sport?

Rhythmic gymnastics gives the five a rope, clubs, a hoop, a ball and a ribbon, while their flying fortress launches from a pad hidden beneath Kourakuen Stadium.

Which actress played two famous Super Sentai villains, Queen Hedrian in Denjiman and the witch Bandora in Zyuranger?

Machiko Soga started out mainly in radio and voice roles. Her final part in the genre, a queen of the Sky Saints, was one of her few who was not a villain.

Which 1987 Super Sentai series introduced the very first sixth hero, five years before Zyuranger made the idea official?

Maskman's extra fighter, X1 Mask, was a predecessor to the main team, given his powers by the M-Project before the five heroes took over.

Which 2003 dinosaur-themed Super Sentai series had one episode reused in its entirety by Power Rangers Dino Thunder?

Abaranger's tenth episode went into the American show whole, and its heroes get around on Ride Raptors, creatures themed on the Velociraptor.

When Super Sentai went on hiatus in 2026, its Sunday-morning slot passed to a series named after which Space Sheriff?

Gavan returned in Super Space Sheriff Gavan Infinity, the opening entry of a new franchise called Project R.E.D. that took over the slot in February 2026.

The heroes of Dengeki Sentai Changeman (1985) are Change Dragon, Gryphon, Pegasus, Mermaid and which other creature?

Phoenix is the code name of Mai Tsubasa, a former army spy, on a team whose powers come from the Earth itself. At 55 episodes, the show is second in length only to the 1975 original.

Which 2006 series marked Super Sentai's 30th anniversary and was the first made in the 16:9 widescreen format?

Boukenger follows a team that hunts powerful relics called Precious before criminal syndicates can seize them. It was adapted as Power Rangers Operation Overdrive.