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by Rick DeWeese
A Sentai Robo Retrospective
Giant Robots! Multi-colored task forces! The most evil villains you'll ever see! And good acting??! Can all of these traits possibly be implemented into one show? Well, in Japan they can, and have been for nearly every year since 1975. Don't let their U.S. incarnation as the Power Rangers fool you, in Japan these shows are actually quite excellent. The word "sentai" roughly translates to "task force". These shows follow a strong pattern, with some variations over the years. This pattern includes the following:
- 1.A group of young, hip actors. Often times making their first appearences in front of a camera. They then go on to become fairly big stars.
- 2.An onslaught of vilains, more diabolical each year after the next. This includes a new monster every episode! They usually meet heir demise at the end of said episode, but after 50 plus episodes quite a rogues gallery is established.
- 3.A big Robot! Each year the designs get better, and sometimes you might even forget it's just a guy in a suit! Now for those sentai experts out there that are reading this might have caught me above. Yes, there has been sentai shows since 1975, but it was not until 1979 that a robot was brought into the fold.
That being said, I want to stress that the focus of this article is on the best part of a sentai series, those great robots - and the toys they spawned - that have aided our heroes for 21 years. The majority of these are in my own collection. Just click on the links below to enter the sensational sentai world!
Special Thanks to Toybox DX for some of the images used in this article.
