Trying Out The Goranger-JAKQ Challenge

 

I posed a challenge by asking how many old-school Super Sentai series one watched. It's also important to ask how updated is the person. It's because there's the possibility of GENERATION GAPS. Realizing Voltes V was from the 1970s made me think that I had a better connection with Golion from the 1980s. It's easier to watch a show not much older than me than a show way older than me. I watched Kamen Rider Amazons which was very 1974 -- 40 years ago today! I could relate better to Kamen Rider Amazons which was in the 2010s. The same goes for the first two Super Sentai series -- namely Himitsu Sentai Goranger and JAKQ Dengekitai. These shows can be as ancient because Goranger is going 50 years old next year. JAKQ was in 1977. 

There will be some spoilers!

Watching Goranger can be challenging due to how "the first" can be THAT LONG and THAT OLD

A lot of earlier series extend to absurd lengths. Mazinger Z had 98 episodes compared to Great Mazinger and Grendizer. The first Gatchaman series had 105 episodes and it's the series that somewhat inspired Super Sentai -- even if it was produced by TATSUNOKO. Watching Chojin Sentai Jetman made me think of Gatchaman. However, Goranger is way closer to Gatchaman than Jetman ever was. Jetman took elements from the Gatchaman Trilogy and mercifully fit them in one year. Goranger had 84 episodes while The First Kamen Rider had 98 episodes. Hard to watch? It's hard for some to watch, especially when one's busy with real life!

Speaking of team formation -- I find it funny Toei never added a child ranger. Either a regular child actor is hard to find or there were some safety concerns. Child rangers were later added with body adjustments -- like Kou had in Gosei Sentai Dairanger. However, it seems the creative team didn't like the child ranger idea. However, one could think of the similarities between the Gorangers and the Gatchamen:

• Tsuyoshi Kaijo and Ken Washio are the leaders
• Akira Shinmei and Joe Asakura are both expert marksmen 
• Both Kirangers (Daita Oiwa and Daigorou Kumano) and Ryu Nakanish are heavy rangers
• Peggy Matsumaya and Jun (surname never known) are explosive experts
• Kenji Asuka and Jinpei are the youngest members of their team

It wasn't Jetman that had the rangers fly. The Gorangers used flight belts called BIRDIES to have limited flight. The idea was obviously copied from Gatchaman. Jetman didn't copy too much from Gatchaman except for the next two parts of the trilogy -- the ones obviously being Radiguet (Count Egobossler) and Aya Odagiri (Sylvie Pandora). The Gatchamen had Snack Bar J. The Goranger had Snack Gon. They also have a military scientist in Dr. Kozaburu Nambu and Gonpachi Edogawa. Both of them develop the weapons. The organization the Gorangers worked for is known as EAGLE.

Goranger had a slow pace given its time. It should get interesting that the Variblune (above) was later replaced by the BIRDLIKE Varidorin in episode 42. I may have complained about the slow pace but I cut some slack. If I can cut some slack over the non-use of spandex (which was introduced in 1983) -- I should understand why midseason upgrades took place in episode 42. I could imagine the low says that Variblue has so the much cooler Varidorin was added. It was piloted either by either Akira or Daita -- the same way either Ryu the Owl or Joe the Condor piloted the God Phoenix in Gatchaman. Toei didn't implement the burn attack since the show had no giant monsters. 

Watching Goranger has this villain known as Black Cross Fuhrer. The massacre in the beginning is already that hard to watch. Black Cross Fuhrer is practically Super Sentai's answer to Sosai X -- a merciless alien creature that seeks to conquer the Earth. Both Sosai X and Black Cross Fuhrer are cruel and manipulative, even willing to exterminate any of the generals that have failed them. Black Cross Fuhrer sentenced his generals to their final missions. Black Cross Fuhrer didn't really feel any remorse whenever a general got destroyed by the Gorangers. Watching Goranger helped me understand why Jetman didn't have a Sosai X counterpart at all! Funny enough there was no Berg Katse counterpart for Goranger. Instead, Toei decided to repeat what they did with the earlier Kamen Rider series -- having different arcs involving different generals. One general stepped in when the previous one got destroyed in battle. Fortunately, the Black Cross Army doesn't have giant-sized monsters at their disposal. However, they once had the mobile fortress Navarone. Later, they have the Black Cross Castle.

Watching Goranger can be a challenge due to its length. The amount of changes the shows have can be hard to catch up. The generals are Sun Halo Mask (15-17, 19-20), Iron Man Mask General Temujin (20-30, 32-42), Volcano Mask General Magman (42-54), and Commander-in-Chief Golden Mask (54-56, The Bomb Hurricane, 57-58, 60-78, 80-84). The generals usually carry out their typical plans for world domination -- each having a Masked Monster per week. The generals get written off and a new one steps in. This can be a lot harder to watch than how Seijuu Sentai Gingaman managed to almost perfectly replace one general after the other. I decided to take note that experiments and innovations are bound to have setbacks to learn from!

I'm also reminded of how Black Cross Fuhrershowed up in crossovers. The Gokaiger 199 Hero Movie was my first introduction to Black Cross Fuhrer. Black Cross Fuhrer even resurrected some Super Sentai villains and proved that he can still be a threat in the 2011 A.D. It's fun to see Black Cross Fuhrer in non-canon crossovers. Fortunately, Black Cross Fuhrer didn't suffer the same fate as Lord Zedd did in Power Rangers Dino Fury and Power Rangers Cosmic Fury -- returning only for the sake of fanservice in non-anniversary entries!

JAKQ also makes me feel like "Is that all?" due to its episode count 

If I'm not wrong, JAKQ got rushed due to the mature themes it presented. One episode even featured drug use AND people dying because of it. Drug use is a heavy issue and it's often not heavily used in TV-Y7-FV. Well, maybe unless one counts Captain Planet where one episode featured an on-screen death from DRUG USE. JAKQ had issues that were probably darker than what Mirai Sentai Timeranger could ever pull off.

Seeing the late Masashi Ishibashi in his earliest role is highly emotional. Ishibashi died of old age. My first exposure to Ishibashi was probably his biggest waste of role -- as Professor Lehda in Kosoku Sentai Turboranger. Ishibashi was General Karr in Kagaku Sentai Dynaman and he was his best there IMHO. Ishibashi played the recurring villain called Iron Claw -- the supposed head of CRIME. Yes, that's what the organization is called. It turns out CRIME was controlled by a mysterious entity called SHINE -- the plot twist was just so funny! SHINE turned out to be some AI entity and had no real powers -- effectively making Iron Claw the true villain. It should be funny how Iron Claw took orders from a powerless AI entity. That made me laugh and cringe at the same time!

JAKQ had two halves. The first half had their commander known as Joker (Daisuke Kujirai) as their commander. The organization is known as ISSIS -- way before the ISIS terrorist group was created decades later! The second half had its acting commander Soikichi Banba. The quartet was called JAKQ -- all named after cards. The Philippines aired it as Lucky ACES just like Goranger was aired as Star Rangers. I have no interest in watching the English dubs due to how badly done they can be. Hiroshi Miyauchi played two different Super Sentai rangers in two different shows. Miyauchi's private life is so private I even wonder if he's got grandkids by now. It was also interesting that Mitchi Love was half-Caucasian. However, Mitchi's character Karen Mizuki had no hints of being born from a white parent and only her Japanese father (RIP) was shown. 

JAKQ only had 35 episodes. It's really rushed but somewhat understandable. Toei also had some rushed entries in the Kamen Rider series like Kamen Rider X only had 35 episodes and Kamen Rider Stronger only had 39 episodes. Infamously, Kamen Rider Amazons was cut short to merely 24 episodes. People who want to argue they're "not rushed" -- well you're welcome to disagree! It's probably because I'm too used to Super Sentai running for an entire year with the late 40s to early 50s number of episodes! It kinda reminds me of another reason why I don't like Power Rangers -- the Disney era rushed things from only 32-38 episodes! Again, if you disagree with me thinking that JAKQ and the other shows here aren't rushed -- FEEL FREE TO DO SO!

The crossover movie might make people believe that Super Sentai is part of that long timeline of contradicting events

Interestingly, JAKQ's final episode aired on December 24, 1977. The movie was released on March 18, 1978. The movie may or may no longer be canon -- depending on how Toei views it. A golden rule to remember is that most Super Sentai crossover movies aren't meant to be canon -- but certain events make them feel like they're canon. A careful analysis of VS. Movies will show how they're pretty much like the Dragon Ball Z movies -- a series of fun What If scenarios! 

The movie presented a scenario where the Iron Claw survived that WTF final battle. Yes, I laughed when Iron Claw was bitten by a rat missile. Goranger and JAKQ had many comedic monster comeuppance scenes! 

Iron Claw survives and returns with his own new supervillain team known as the Crime Big Four. They are Captain UFO, General Sahara, Hell Boxer, and Baron Iron Mask. These have some obvious recycling done from Kamen Rider. It's obvious that General Sahara is a rehash of Ambassador Hell (and the same concept would be reused for Deathmark in Dai Sentai Goggle V) and Hell Boxer from General Tusk from Kamen Rider V3. The four of them try to take over the world in a movie that's just as LONG as a regular episode. Yeesh, I'm afraid this also caused Ohsama Sentai King-Ohger vs. Avatar Sentai Donbrothers to be THAT SHORT. Heck, even that Power Rangers Time Force episode involving Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue was JUST ONE EPISODE! It's funny how Super Sentai and Power Rangers tend to repeat certain mistakes at different points in time! 

An interesting trivia is that Kamen Rider V3, Kikaider, and Kamen Rider Amazon were in some part of the world. Given the budget and limitations -- it's something that's best left as a video game plot, a Manga plot, or a fan-fiction! Super Sentai operates with Tokyo as the Center of the Universe and with a Japanese team. Having actual footage in the Sahara Desert, Europe, and the Amazon Rainforest is easier said than done. CGI green screens were probably not that accessible at that time. Having the narrative was more than enough given the era. 

It's disappointing that the only Goranger character to show up was PEGGY! The others were only in-suit. I wonder what happened BTS that only allowed one Goranger to be out-of-suit. It was also the same year when what I'd call that possible Curse of Super Sentai happened -- Baku Hakateyama ended his life on July 13 of that same year! Kiranger II's actor Jiro Daruma is still alive -- even if the character Daigoro Kumano was later killed off. It's because Baku was participating in a stage play. Baku returned in episode 67 -- an episode that somewhat predicted his own end.

The special movie was campy in some way. It should be noted that there was NO Super Sentai crossover movie for some time -- until Choriki Sentai Ohranger vs. Ninja Sentai Kakuranger. Most VS. Movies would have blatant continuity problems. Oboro Hinata would often Break the Fourth Wall in the movies where Ninpuu Sentai Hurricanger was involved by saying, "It's only a special." It seemed that Toei probably planned for Super Sentai to be part of that expanding Universe. It seemed that idea was scrapped since Battle Fever J presumably to allow better creativity or cultural differences with America.