Megaranger: A Huge Tribute to Hirohisa Soda's Era of Sentai?

Okay I'll probably resume my analysis for major plots (when I finally get ANOTHER series to complete) and my writers' analysis when my mind cools down, but after doing Megaranger, I thought that the whole series was probably a huge tribute to Hirohisa Soda's era in the 80s. The head producer has Shigenori Takatera while it had three major writers namely Junki Takegami, Yasuko Kobayashi and Naruhisa Arakawa. Hirohisa Soda's works tend to get modified by many writers today. While I admit Hirohisa Soda is past his prime but without him, we can't get some revolution for Super Sentai and I still think his era's writing is the best.

How is that possible? I'll name some things that came from the Soda era minus the sixth ranger, sometimes I wish we'll have another series without any additional rangers:


Megaranger is the second Super Sentai team of teenagers with attitude as rangers. Unlike Turboranger where teenagers with attitude with fairy energies were chosen by Seelon, Kenta was chosen because he won the Megaranger game and the other four were dragged into it. Quite interestingly, they came after MMPR. Maybe MMPR did encourage Toei's producers to try another high school theme Sentai. Like the Biomen, they had electronic abilities that help them out in battle.


Kenta Date like Riki Honoo has problems with academics and is the red ranger of the team. I was thinking either producers or writer or both named him Kenta in honor of Kenta Sato, the actor who acted as Riki Honoo. Kenta Date like Kenta in Maskman tends to easily fall for certain girls too.


Kouchirou like some 80s black is a professional guy. Like Daichi, he is more reliable than the red ranger to the point, he is the de-facto leader of Megarangers. He is also very serious and dedicated with his schoolwork.


Shun is almost like another gender flip of the late Mika Koizumi. At first, he refuses to join the group because he wanted to pursue his dream to be a computer graphic artist. After he saw Kenta trying to protect his dreams, he realized that he must protect the dreams of others too. I guess they didn't want to put Mika's personality into Chisato because... they already had a Mika in Carranger with Natsumi.


Chisato is in a way, a tribute to the short-lived Mika Koizumi of Bioman minus the fact she doesn't wear red most of the time nor is she independent-minded. She is good friends with Kenta just like Jun is good friends with Shiro in Bioman. Like Mika, she also a photographer and a yellow ranger. Unlike Mika, she didn't leave us so soon for the afterlife. Like Sara, she is also pretty witty and while not physically strong, she is a very strong minded character. I thought while she was attracted to Kouichirou, she had some chemistry with Kenta.


Dr. Eiji Kubota throws back to most Hirohisa Soda era scientists. Like Dr. Dazai, he trains a group of teenagers with attitude as rangers. Like Dr. Kyutaro, he is dedicated to improving mankind with science. Also one plot from Bioman that was carried over was that of Dr. Shibata/Shinichiro Gou who had a falling away with a former friend. He vowed to stop Dr. Samejima who was once his close friend hence he became part of INET.


The supposed leader Javious I like Emperor Lar Deus has a human to help him. Lar Deus had Dr. Lee Keflen, Javious I had Dr. Hinelar. Both of them were betrayed. Dr. Lee Keflen took some of the DNA of Lar Deus for his experiments. Dr. Hinelar took Javious I's DNA (?) to create the Nejirangers. Both of them were destroyed by their superiors and never surfaced as the final villain.


Dr. Hinelar is sort of a combination of Dr. Man and Dr. Lee Keflen. Like Dr. Lee Keflen, Dr. Hinelar is a master in genetics manipulation and obsessed with twisted biology experiments, even risking everyone in the process and later, succeeded in betraying their masters to become the final villain. Like Dr. Man, Dr. Hinelar was not exactly in good terms with Dr. Kubota and was getting rid of his humanity believing that the winner of the battle will have the right to start a new era. Dr. Hinelar is a sinister master of demonic science, looking down at the rest of humanity believing himself as the rightful ruler of the world. Like Grand Professor Bias, he also manipulated the Nejirangers to his own advantage just as the former betrayed his own followers for his own advantage.


Shibolena and Ley Nefel were both created by the mad scientists of their shows. Ley Nefel and Shibolena both view their creators as "fathers". Shibolena like the Prince in Bioman, was created in the image of their creator's child. Shibolena was created in Dr. Hinelar's late daughter who died in his extremely risky experiment just as Prince is created in Dr. Man's estranged son Shuichi who he wasn't able to meet until years later.


Both Yugande and Ley Wanda were created by the mad scientists of their shows and were ultimately destroyed by red rangers. Yugande was rivals with Megared, Ley Wanda was rivals with Red Flash.


Bibibedi pretty throws back to Soda's creature features of monster enlargement like Gyodai in Changeman and Okerampa in Maskman.


The Nejirangers were created out from Javious' DNA, probably a throwback to that of Dr. Lee Keflen's later monsters in Flashman which had the DNA of Lar Deus. Like the Beastnoids of Bioman, the Alien Hunters of Flashman and the Galaxy Men of Fiveman (I spell it this way to avoid confusing with the Seijuu Sentai Gingaman)... they were an evil Sentai force. However these guys are really twisted and evil, I say they are the most powerful evil Sentai team to date! And of course, their PR in Space counterparts also deserved the name Psycho Rangers as well since neither side was really sane.